


Nameless;

by tmntransformer



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:34:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21676099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tmntransformer/pseuds/tmntransformer
Summary: “I’m going to get along with my soulmate.” He tells her matter-of-factly. “They’re going to be my best friend.”“Yeah?” Saeko tips her head at an angle, face so fond it’s embarrassing. “You going to fall in love and all that too?” Tanaka feels his face flush.“I don’t know!” He crams more cereal into his mouth and crunches it loudly in an attempt to drown out her cackle. A lot of people fall in love with their soulmates. Not everyone. But it’s the dream, isn’t it? To find your person, to find your name on them too, and to fall in love. Tanaka’s only nine, so he’s not sure he cares about the love part entirely. It would be nice, maybe. He wrinkles his nose. “But they’ll definitely be my best friend!”∞	∞	∞	∞	∞Soulmate AU where your soulmate's name shows up written somewhere on your body.
Relationships: Ennoshita Chikara/Yamamoto Taketora, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio/Kozume Kenma, Kuroo Tetsurou/Sawamura Daichi, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Misaki Hana/Shimizu Kiyoko, Nishinoya Yuu/Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Tanaka Saeko/Ukai Keishin, Terushima Yuuji/Tsukishima Kei
Comments: 24
Kudos: 154





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _me, casually posting the first chapter two weeks after the deadline: it's fashionable to be late._
> 
> shout-out & endless thanks to mossyace, the artist i was randomly matched up with by the hqbb 2019 mod-gods, for not only making all my tananoya dreams come true but also being very patient & understanding w/ my lateness. without their motivation i know this fic would not be the same - genuinely, they inspired several of the scenes.
> 
> NOW, WITHOUT ANY FURTHER ADO, I PRESENT TO YOU MY HAIKYUU BIG BANG 2019 FIC ୧⍢⃝୨;;

Tanaka doesn’t realise he’s staring again until Saeko’s thumb rubs along the gold letters, a dimple dipped in her brow and a half-frown resting on her face in such a way that Tanaka can’t work out if she’s hoping the letters won’t come off or irritated that they aren’t.

“Sorry.” He averts his gaze back to his cereal and wonders in an abstract sort of way what kind of face he’ll make the morning he wakes up and finds someone else’s name sunken into his skin.

“What for?” Saeko grins at him. “’S’not like you put it there.” She tugs at her sleeve as if it will magically grow a few inches and when it doesn’t her grin slips away again.

“You goin’ ta put a plaster over it?”

“Nah,” Saeko shakes her head slowly, “that’s way too obvious.”

“You could wear a jacket,” he points out. Sure, it’s sunny out, but Saeko’s worn her jacket on hotter days than this before, so it wouldn’t really be out of character.

“I could,” she agrees, fingertips softly smoothing across the letters this time, “but I’m not going to.”

“People will see.”

“Let them see.” She’s grinning again, but at what Tanaka’s not sure.

“You know who they are then?” He’s never heard the name before but Saeko doesn’t go to his school anymore; there’s countless names she knows that he doesn’t.

“No,” she flicks the name as if to prompt it into giving her more information, “not a clue. But I don’t see the point of hiding it. Could be years until we find each other, and even then, there’s no promising we’ll get along.” Tanaka shovels a huge spoonful of cereal into his mouth as he mulls that over.

“Why wouldn’t you get along?” What’s the point of being intertwined, he wonders, if _not_ to get along?

“Well,” Saeko hums reasonably, “loads of reasons. Not everybody gets along with each other.” That’s true of course; loads of kids in Tanaka’s class don’t really like him much. And it’s not like he has any idea whose name might one day show up somewhere on his body, but he just has this feeling it can’t be any of them. Something warm that fizzles at the back of his throat that makes him sure, with no evidence to support it, that when he meets his person, they’ll be special.

“I’m going to get along with my soulmate.” He tells her matter-of-factly. “They’re going to be my best friend.”

“Yeah?” Saeko tips her head at an angle, face so fond it’s embarrassing. “You going to fall in love and all that too?” Tanaka feels his face flush.

“I don’t know!” He crams more cereal into his mouth and crunches it loudly in an attempt to drown out her cackle. A lot of people fall in love with their soulmates. Not everyone. But it’s the dream, isn’t it? To find your person, to find your name on them too, and to fall in love. Tanaka’s only nine, so he’s not sure he cares about the love part entirely. It would be nice, maybe. He wrinkles his nose. “But they’ll definitely be my best friend!”

“Best friend, huh?” Saeko’s gaze drifts back down to the name newly scribbled on the soft skin just below her left inner elbow crease.

As places for names to show up go, there are way worse ones. On the news just last week Tanaka saw a girl who woke up with her soulmate’s name lying across her nose like a lazy little worm. She didn’t seem to mind because the places always match on your other half, so her whoever was walking around with her name lazing across their nose too. She had actually laughed, a bright sound despite how self-conscious she seemed, and said she only felt bad that their name was a lot shorter than hers.

“A best friend wouldn’t be so bad.” Saeko stands up, clearly intending to make that her final statement on the topic when Tanaka was just about to tell her she’s lucky her whoever doesn’t have handwriting as ugly as her own. Maybe that’s for the best; she’d only dig her knuckles into the top of his head until he was forced to apologise.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Tanaka is a fresh-faced fifth grader, recently turned ten years old, when Kanoka Amanai transfers to his school. She’s been begging her mum for years to let her study at Tanaka’s school, but her mum is a strong believer in private education and same-sex schools.

“She’s forcing me to suffer because our dad left us.” Kanoka had muttered miserably last April when her mum had once again refused to let her change schools.

“Nah she probably just wants you to do what she did is all.” Tanaka’s pretty sure, despite her modern suits and swanky office job, that Kanoka’s mum is very traditional at heart. He’s been to their house a bunch of times and it’s still got tatami floors and sliding doors throughout. And there’s a picture on their bookshelf of her graduating class; she’s wearing the exact same uniform that Kanoka had to wear.

But now, suddenly, Kanoka’s here. He kind of knows only half the story. Kanoka is his friend but she’s really shy and doesn’t like to talk about her school all that much. All he knows is that she hated it and it was her homeroom teacher who finally convinced her mum to let her switch.

It’s only for two years – they both know as soon as they graduate Kanoka will be enrolled in a private all girls junior high – but that doesn’t matter right now. Because right now, for the first time, Tanaka has a friend in his class.

“This is Kanoka Amanai,” their teacher introduces, “she’ll be joining us from today.” Kanoka’s eyes dart nervously around at all the new faces. “Who’d like to show her around?” Tanaka has never thrown his hand into the air quicker, but it seems it wasn’t all that necessary, since no one else offers. Their teacher offers him a gentle smile. “Wonderful, thank you Tanaka.” And just like that she arranges a desk for Kanoka right next to his own.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Bullying is not a new concept to Tanaka. He knows other kids have gotten bullied and he’s almost certain some of the kids in his class wanted to bully him before too – they probably would have if Saeko hadn’t shown up to school the day after he told her what they’d said, shirt sleeves rolled to her elbows and mouth set in a fierce snarl, and loudly declared that if anyone had an issue with their family situation then now was the time to pipe up. And he already knew Kanoka had been dying to move schools, so he really shouldn’t be surprised, and yet, he is.

It takes him completely off-guard when he overhears two girls at the front of the class whispering about it as they huddle over the gap between their desks. And he knows by their tone they don’t mean it maliciously, that they’re not involved in the bullying, they’ve just heard about it, so instead of telling them off and defending Kanoka, he finds himself slowing his steps to catch as much of their conversation as he can.

“She had to transfer because she was getting bullied.”

“Bullied? Really? What for?”

“I heard it’s ‘cause she’s a bit weird and,” Satomi’s nose scrunches in on itself as she takes a quick peek at Kanoka over her shoulder, “she’s _so_ tall.”

And well, Tanaka thinks, frowning as he makes his way back to his seat, that can’t be right at all. Because not only is being tall an absolute life advantage and something he imagines would make anyone instantly popular, but Kanoka is not weird at all. She’s kind and patient and cute and never laughs loud enough to disrupt anyone else like he often does.

Plus, she’s his best friend. She definitely would have told him if she was being bullied.

“I didn’t want you to know,” she admits when he asks her on their walk home; he’d never have been able to keep something like this to himself.

“How comes?” Tanaka doesn’t feel good about this at all. Aren’t friends supposed to tell each other stuff like this?

“Because you’re really cool.” Kanoka twists a section of her hair around her finger nervously. “I thought maybe you wouldn’t want to be friends with me if you knew I was a loser.” Tanaka stops dead in his tracks, blinking stupidly at the dirt footpath under his shoes until he notices Kanoka’s stopped walking too and is looking at him with apprehension.

“You’re not a loser.” He sighs at the flicker of shock that flashes across her face. He’s a pretty bad friend, he guesses, for letting his one and only friend believe they’re a loser. “You said so yourself, I’m really cool.” He puffs up his chest and poses in what he hopes is a cool way and then pokes out his tongue at her because he knows that always makes her giggle. “So, I’d only _ever_ want to be friends with someone as _equally_ cool.”

Probably he’s the loser. The signs are all there – no real friends aside from Kanoka who is likely only his friend because they live more or less opposite each other and happen to be the same age, no skills he can brag about or showcase to get popular from, and he certainly doesn’t get good enough grades to even attract friends who just want to copy his homework. Only Saeko waiting for him in their half-empty house…

But Tanaka doesn’t _feel_ like a loser. And that, he’s always thought, is the deciding factor.

The beaming grin on Kanoka’s face when he lightly flicks her left ear certainly doesn’t make him feel like a loser either.

“Thanks Ryu-chan.”

“You just hafta promise me,” he tacks on when they’ve made their way to the edge of her garden, “if anyone ever tries to hurt you again, you’ll tell me.” Her eyes skitter away from his. “And I mean _ever_.” Not just in school, but in junior high or high school or university or wherever life takes her, he wants to be someone she can rely on.

“Okay,” she nods after a moment, nose pinking, “so long as you promise me the exact same back.” She holds out a pinky finger; he grins as he wraps his own one around it. It’s a promise.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Tanaka’s still in elementary school when a boy in his class comes into school one morning with a name printed perfectly between his shoulder blades. He shows everyone at break, lifting his shirt up to his neck in the playground; the sun gleams across the golden letters in a blinding way.

“I didn’t even notice,” he tells everyone, “my ma did when me and Fumi were in the bath.” Fumi is his little sister, which causes Tanaka to pause. They’re only eleven now, young enough to still be having shared baths, but suddenly Jurou who sits diagonally in front of him and sometimes snorts when he laughs has someone’s name forever on his skin.

“A-ya-ko,” a tall girl with green glasses from a different class sounds out, eyes gleaming excitedly, “do you know her?” Ayako, Tanaka thinks, is a nice name. None of the kids in their class are called Ayako. Jurou shrugs.

“Not yet.” It’s kind of unimportant to him it seems. “But I bet she likes cop shows!”

“Ehh?” A shorter girl with blue ribbons tied around her pigtails this time. “What makes you think that?”

“Our names are on each other’s backs,” Jurou points out, as if it’s obvious, “cops always stand back-to-back with their partner’s, right?” He drops his shirt, Ayako’s name blinking out of sight, to pull a dramatic back-to-back pose with nobody, arms held out and fingers pointed into a gun. He takes aim with one eye winked closed and all the girls burst into giggles. “She’s definitely gonna be my partner.”

Tanaka’s never considered that the placement of names might not be random before. Jurou is obviously a fan of cop shows himself, so has decided that their placement has meaning. But the soft skin between Saeko’s left forearm and inner elbow seems totally random to Tanaka; unless maybe her meaning will come later?

That night before he climbs into bed is the first time Tanaka slowly inspects his hands and feet in case a name has snuck up on him without him noticing. If the placements have meaning, he supposes, then surely his will be somewhere he uses for volleyball. Even the skin between his fingers and toes remain stubbornly nameless.

But Tanaka’s not worried, he’s only eleven, he’s still got years before his soulmate should show up.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

All things considered Oujitsu isn’t all that different from elementary school. Over half of the kids in his class come here too, though not that many of them are in his class now, which is nice at first until he works out that almost all the new ones were also from his elementary school, just different classes, and none of them have changed their mind about wanting to be his friend.

So he winds up sitting on his own and eating lunch on his own and, now that Kanoka’s attending some prestigious girls school that’s two busses away, walking home on his own too. And it’s not all that bad; he’s done it before after all.

Only Oujitsu has a volleyball team. That Tanaka’s on. And that makes all the difference.

He’s been dreaming of making it onto a volleyball team for as long as he can remember and even though he’s not number five – his mum was number five and he really wanted to wear her number – he figures what that really means is he’s just not number five _yet_ ; he's working towards it.

His teammates are all pretty awesome too. None of them directly want to be his friend; there are no sleepover invites or requests for his line I.D. – which would hardly matter since he doesn’t have a phone – and none of them ever ask if they can play volleyball with him outside of practice.

But they all love volleyball almost as much as he does, they include him in every game and he’s never found himself left alone to clean up after practice. Some of his upperclassman have even taken to ruffling his hair after a particularly good rally so he knows he must be doing something right, volleyball-wise at least.

Which is why, when Kanoka knocks on his door one Sunday afternoon in the July of his second year, with eyes so puffy and red that she doesn’t even need to tell him for him to know, he invites her along to their next practice.

She skips her last two periods, a _very_ un-Kanoka-like thing to do, and even then she doesn’t manage to get there until practice is half-over.

“Yo! Amanai!” Tanaka jogs over to her when he spots her loitering uneasily in the doorway.

“I don’t think I have the right shoes.” She mumbles, face flaming when his captain and coach appear either side of him to introduce themselves.

“They’ll do for a taster session”, Gotoda, his captain, assures and offers her his hand to shake. Tanaka has no comparison, but he still thinks he’s been lucky in getting Gotoda as a captain. He’s kind and patient and when Tanaka had explained how his friend was getting bullied in her own school and how he’d really like for her to try taking up volleyball, he’d said yes before he’d even finished asking.

“I apologise in advance,” coach Yashiro sighs in exasperation as a couple of Tanaka’s teammates have already started to yell across the gym at Kanoka that they’re the team’s ace, “they’re very excited to have a girl to show off to.” She turns and blows her whistle at them, rallying them into a line. “Now introduce yourselves to our guest civilly,” she instructs, which goes well until Doko, who’s third in line, blows Kanoka a kiss and Yashiro gives up completely, telling Gotoda he's in charge of running drills with the team.

“Ah–” Tanaka starts, moving a step closer to Kanoka.

“You too Tanaka,” Yashiro interrupts, making shooing motions with her hands, “miss Kanoka and I are going to have some girl time.”

“Oh.” He looks at Kanoka worriedly, but she seems okay with that plan, so he nods. “Alright, thank you coach.” And salutes as he runs backwards to his team.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

“Sooo,” Gotoda flings an arm around Tanaka’s shoulders at their next water break, slotting his head ear-to-ear with Tanaka’s and watching Kanoka’s serving practice, “is she your soulmate?”

“Ehh?” Tanaka almost headbutts him his head jerks so sharply to stare at him.

“Is that a no?” Gotoda raises an eyebrow at him and grins teasingly.

“I don’t have a soulmate.” Tanaka doesn’t think that’s so weird; he only became a teenager a few months back.

“You don’t have one yet,” Gotoda points out, smirking as he turns back to look at Kanoka, “so she could be yours and you just don’t know it.” Tanaka watches the corners of Kanoka’s mouth dip down determinedly as she tosses the ball up and the way her eyes light up in surprise when her wrist collides with it almost perfectly. None of her serves have made it over the net yet, but that’s only because she’s not hitting it hard enough.

“I don’t think it’s gonna be Amanai,” Tanaka admits after a moment. He’s never even really considered it could be her if he’s honest and as far as he knows Kanoka doesn’t have a name yet either. It’s not something they’ve ever talked about.

And it’s not as if he’d _hate_ it if she were because she’s definitely the kind of friend he hopes sticks with him for his whole life. It’s just, he sort of figured when he met his soulmate he’d _know_ it was them. He’d see their face for the first time and, with or without their name, his heart would thump a whole new rhythm that let him know he’d met his person.

“Hmm,” Gotoda nods like he understands, “that’s a bummer. She’s pretty cute and definitely has volleyball potential.”

“She’s a natural,” Tanaka agrees, grinning when she lets out a small whooping noise as her next serve goes far enough that it bounces off the net.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Kanoka gushes about how cool coach Yashiro is and how fun she thinks volleyball is almost the whole way home. She tells him coach said she’s welcome to come by for practice every Sunday, so long as they don’t have a game the following Monday, and has even said she’ll contact Kanoka’s school's coach if she wants, even though she’s sure if she approached and asked herself she’d be welcomed onto the team.

“Of course! You’re a natural!” Tanaka hasn’t seen her so happy in ages, and he tells her so, which only seems to make her happier. Coach Yashiro had even gifted her one of their old volleyballs so she could still play at home if she decided joining her school’s team wasn’t for her.

“But I think I want to be on a team.” She grins as she tosses Tanaka the ball. “You looked like you were having fun on yours.”

“Yeah they’re good guys.” Tanaka tosses it back to her, laughing when she fumbles it and it bounces onto the floor. She jogs after it to pick it back up.

“I just need some real shoes and I’m all set I think.”

“Saeko probably has some you can have.” She has at least a dozen pairs of old trainers and, as fond of them as she is, Tanaka knows she won’t begrudge giving them to Kanoka to have a new life.

“Thanks Tanaka.” Kanoka hugs the volleyball to her chest tightly. “You’ve really saved me, you know?” Tanaka does know because he feels the exact same way about volleyball, but the fondness in her voice makes him feel overly embarrassed all the same.

“What are friends for?” He nudges her with his shoulder. She nudges him back, before racing him the rest of the way home since she’s pretty certain her mum is going to go ballistic; she not only skipped two classes but she’s an hour late home.

They stop, panting at the edge of her garden, like they always used to, and Tanaka watches the way her eyes crinkle when she smiles and finds himself remembering what Gotoda had said, about it being a bummer that Kanoka’s not his soulmate.

“Hey, Amanai,” he pauses when she looks at him in earnest. She really is so cute and so fun, and anyone would be lucky to have her as a soulmate. He decides not to ask her if she has a name, she’d have told him if she wanted him to know, and even if she doesn’t he already knows she wasn't made for him. “Come by whenever to pick out some trainers!”

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

The night before he turns fifteen Tanaka stands in front of the bathroom mirror using one of Saeko’s compact mirrors to check the back of himself. It doesn’t exactly matter, he tells himself, only around half of the population find their names in junior high anyway. He just had this idea that because Saeko found hers when she was fourteen, he’d find his at fourteen; they’re alike in a lot of ways and he just figured they’d match in this way too.

The back of his neck and behind his ears remain painfully blank. His back too. There’s no name wrapped around a thigh or tucked under an armpit or tickling his ribs. Still no name hidden between his toes. Nobody anywhere. He’s separating the hairs in his right eyebrow, just in case a teeny tiny one is lurking in the strands, when Saeko wanders past the door and snorts.

“Maybe you should shave your head, someone could be stuck under all that hair.” Their eyes lock in the mirror and she sighs, expression shifting. “You’re being silly Ryuu,” she comes up behind him and ruffles his hair, “loads of people don’t get them at fourteen.”

“Some people never get them.” He doesn’t know why he says it. The number of nameless people is less than half a percent. The number of people who end up not even liking their soulmate is actually a lot higher. But Tanaka wants one. He wants to know there’s someone out there perfectly designed to be his best friend, providing of course that he doesn’t scare them off.

“Sure,” she concedes, brows dipping in slight concern, “but some people also find their name when they’re fourteen and make it to nineteen still having never met the person it belongs to.” She’s talking about herself now, the name on her forearm decorated with black ink question marks, as she tends to do these days when she’s bored at work.

“Mum and dad found each other when they were twenty-six,” he reminds her.

“Yeah,” she knocks her shoulder into his, “and how old were they when their names showed up?”

“Sixteen.” He knocks her right back. That was their favourite way to be sappy and reminisce about their names; a decade-long wait to the exact day that they locked eyes just before their mum caught their dad as he tripped and almost fell onto a train. _My hero,_ he used to coo at her whenever he saw her, _I’ve been looking for you._

“Exactly.” She wraps an arm around his shoulders and plants a kiss into his hair. Before he has time to dwell on the fact that his parents aren’t here anymore, spent ten years waiting and looking for each other only to get rear-ended by a drunk driver one random evening without really having the chance to enjoy their happily-ever-after, Saeko tugs sharply on his ear lobe. “You’ll find your someone, kiddo. Now hurry up and put a top on, dinner’s ready.”

He waits until her footsteps have faded down the corridor before double-checking the skin stretched over his heart. It’s really unusual for children to find their name in the same place as their parents. Unusual, but not impossible.

Still nameless.

Well, whatever. He’s sure it will turn up.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

It takes Tanaka about half a day to come to the conclusion that high school is way, way better than junior high ever was.

He chose Karasuno mostly for their volleyball team, but a smidge because absolutely nobody from his junior high school is coming here – it’s _just_ far enough away that no one else could be bothered with the journey. But Tanaka likes the journey. He likes the walks to and from the bus stop. And he likes eating his breakfast amongst the early morning bus people and the afternoon nap he gets to have on his return.

And he likes that he gets another chance to find a friend or two; hopefully this time he won’t be too loud or too energetic and scare them all off.

But most of all he likes that when he introduced himself to his class this morning, no one knew who he was or anything. Not a single person, all day long, has looked at him with that soft, awkward pity he’s grown accustomed to. _A fresh start_ , Saeko had said after he’d told her he was applying to Karasuno, _will do wonders for you, kiddo._ And Tanaka doesn’t want to hope for too much, but Karasuno sure does feel like the kind of place where wonders are possible.

In fact, he’s already decided that Karasuno is at least five-hundred times better than Oujitsu by the time volleyball try-outs roll around and he meets Nishinoya.

Nishinoya is easily the coolest person Tanaka has ever seen in his entire life. He jumps as if gravity doesn’t exist and when he runs Tanaka has to really pay attention to even see his feet touch the ground; he’s like thunder and lightning, like a shock of magic thrown straight at Tanaka when he wasn’t expecting it. Nishinoya hollers around the gym and screeches Tanaka’s name, trusting him with the ball and guarding his back as if they’ve been friends for years.

“You’re really great!” Nishinoya enthuses in his face after try-outs, hands flapping excitedly; the shock of orange in his hair wiggles as he bounces on his toes. “How long have you been playing volleyball?”

“Since forever,” he can feel his face heating up in embarrassment. His mum played volleyball. Before he could even walk she had started to teach him how to play. It was like their thing; playing volleyball makes him feel close to her. A lifetime of practice to be only a normal level of good seems almost useless in the face of how awesome Nishinoya is.

“Me too!” He nods rapidly. “I could sense that about you, ya’know? Your aura is like,” he pinches his eyes closed and presses his palms together, “all volleyball!”

“Yeah?” Tanaka watches as the grin on his own face mirrors itself onto Nishinoya’s.

“One hundred percent, it’s all like,” he rolls his hands in the air, fingers dipping forwards then up like a wave on water, “super-smooth and steady you know?”

“You’re like lightning,” he tells him. “Zapping and rolling everywhere, like thunder and lightning.” Nishinoya’s laugh cracks into the gym, painfully bright and happy, and Tanaka decides on the spot that he’ll do anything to be his best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...okay so i got very carried away with pre-karasuno tanaka. i wish i was sorry. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ just know that i think kanoka is very sweet & that i got even more carried away w/ karasuno tanaka & that there's a lot more nishinoya to come. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading!   
> (⺣◡⺣)♡
> 
> feel free to bother me on tumblr @tmntransformer & spam @mossyace w/ all the love in the world.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have a lot of head-canons for everyone's families. 
> 
> welcome to ch. 2, the tananoya edition of family head-canons.

As luck would have it, becoming best friend's with Nishinoya is surprisingly simple. All it takes is turning up on his doorstep early Sunday morning, with an attempt at breakfast buns wrapped up neatly in kitchen roll and a second controller hung around his neck, for Nishinoya to crow delightedly into the air and declare him “number one bro material”.

He yanks Tanaka into his house by the cuff of his top, taking the buns from him and skipping off with a casual “squeeze your shoes in anywhere!” thrown over his shoulder. Tanaka didn’t think all that much about Nishinoya’s housing set-up when he asked if he was free today but looking at his shoe-rack at the door causes him to pause; there are more free spaces than occupied ones.

Tanaka lines up his shoes neater than he ever would in his own house – he and Saeko don’t even have a shoe-rack, they just kick their shoes off in a pile by the door – and wanders in the direction he can hear Nishinoya’s happy humming sounds coming from.

He finds him perched on the edge of a stool, carefully placing breakfast buns on three little pink dishes.

“Your house is super tidy,” he tells him in a way that he hopes sounds like a compliment, eyes taking in the pristine counter tops and magnet-free fridge door. It’s a little daunting if he’s honest. It makes Tanaka feel like he should have worn a better outfit, or at least ironed this one. Nishinoya wrinkles his nose.

“Yeah, up here is a bit like that. Mum’s kind of a control freak even though she’s never here.” He shrugs as if to say it can’t be helped.

“Oh.” Tanaka doesn’t know how to answer that, or what to do with himself, so he sort of sways on the spot and stares at the empty walls. It’s kind of unusual, Tanaka thinks, that there’s no framed pictures anywhere. Then again, it’s been years since he’s been to a friend’s house, maybe it’s his house that’s weird.

“Here!” Nishinoya gestures to the empty stool beside him and pushes one little pink dish in front of it with a flourish. Tanaka grins and hops up next to him, rolling his sleeves up to his elbows. He offers up a quick thanks even though it was him that brought the buns over and smiles when Nishinoya sends up an echo of thanks after him.

“For your dad?” Tanaka nods at the third dish on the counter. He’s starting to think he didn’t ask enough polite questions about Nishinoya’s family before inviting himself over – he’s the best volleyball player Tanaka’s ever seen, what more did he need to know? But he’s here now and Nishinoya seems genuinely happy about it, so he figures he can’t have offended him in any real way by not asking before.

“Nah,” Nishinoya’s nose wrinkles again, “he’s in Yokohama with my mum.” He takes another bite of his bun. “They have a flat there ‘cause it’s where they work. They try to come back every weekend but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way… y’know how it is?” Tanaka, of course, does not know how it is, but nods like he understands.

“Do you go to Yokohama sometimes then?”

“Not really.” He wipes his mouth on the cuff on his top and then wipes his cuff on his shorts. “I’ve been a couple of times. They really want me to go to university there, they say there’s a bunch with really good volleyball programs… but I kinda like the idea of staying here with Gramps.”

“Ah,” Tanaka’s eyes flicker to the third plate and he smiles, “for Gramps then?”

“Yeah!” Tanaka can tell from the way Nishinoya’s eyes light up, face void of any wrinkling, that Gramps is someone Nishinoya really loves. “He should be back soon; you’ll really like him a lot! He likes to go for morning walks with our neighbour and her dog,” he waggles his eyebrows, “he says it’s ‘cause he’s sweet on the dog but I’m pretty sure he’s sweet on her.”

“Now, now, little Yo-yo-kun, isn’t it too early to be gossiping so brazenly?” Tanaka almost chokes on his bun, twisting his stool to turn and stare at who he supposes must be Gramps in the doorway. By the grin spreading over Nishinoya’s face, he was well aware that he’d arrived home already.

“See?” He nudges Tanaka with his foot, “he’s not even going to deny it.”

“I fear that to deny your colourful imaginations would only serve to add flames to the fire.”

“Pfft.” Nishinoya rolls his eyes but jumps up to give Gramps his stool and then busies himself with washing up his and Tanaka’s dishes. “You just can’t bring yourself to lie to me, that’s all.”

“Oh?” Gramps picks up his little pink dish with both hands and holds it up in the air, staring Tanaka’s breakfast bun head-on, eye-to-eye. “This doesn’t appear to be a concoction of yours, Yo-yo?”

“Tanaka brought them over!” Nishinoya beams brightly at Tanaka.

“Of course he did.” Gramps eyes flicker over to Tanaka and he smiles warmly. “I take it you’re Mr. Tanaka?”

“Yes, Gramps, sir.” Tanaka nods, resisting the sudden urge to scratch at his nose.

“Sir?” Gramps’ mouth quirks on one side. “You’ve managed to make friends with a gentleman, Yo-yo.”

“Ah!” Nishinoya smacks himself on the forehead, sending a small spray of soapy water into the air. “Sorry!” He grins sheepishly at the two of them. “Tanaka, Gramps; Gramps, Tanaka. He’s the wing spiker I told you about!”

“A volleyball gentleman, of course.” Gramps nods thoughtfully to himself as he finally lowers his dish back to the counter, sending up a whisper of thanks under his breath before taking a bite. He chews on it consideringly, making a deep humming noise at the back of his throat before swallowing. “This is most delightful, Mr. Tanaka, a recipe of your own perhaps?”

“Uh, not really, I borrowed my mum’s and remixed it a bit.” Switching out most of the healthy ingredients for less healthy ones and skipping steps that are beyond his skill level is a remix of sorts.

“Does she bake a lot?”

“Uhm,” Tanaka blinks at Nishinoya’s earnest curiosity and stalls. It’s been over seven years now and he’s still yet to find a good way to tell people his parents are dead. No combination of words ever seem to sound right. _I’m an orphan_ , is concise, but always leads to more questions. _They’re both dead_ , is too blunt of a delivery. _They were killed in a car crash_ , evokes way too much pity than Tanaka knows how to deal with.

 _Yeah,_ Tanaka entertains saying, _she really loves baking. Every weekend our house smells like the new bread recipe she discovered that week when she probably should have been working. And just wait until it’s my birthday ‘cause every surface in our kitchen is filled with cupcakes!_

 _Nah, she doesn’t bake_ , a different inner voice pipes up, _since she’s dead._

Tanaka fidgets, unsure what to say. He likes Nishinoya a whole lot, more than he’s liked anyone in forever, and he instinctively knows he can trust him with anything, but… he doesn’t want to tell him this just yet. He doesn’t want to make Nishinoya feel sad, doesn’t want to see the way his face will fall into that soft sympathy he’s grown used to expecting, doesn’t want to go from _the wing spiker I told you about_ to _that poor orphan kid_ quite so quickly. He swallows.

“Not as much as she’d like,” he tries.

“Better than never like my mum,” Nishinoya sighs forlornly, “everything she touches tastes like butt.”

“My, my, Yo-yo,” Gramps scolds softly, “not everyone can be blessed with every skill. My daughter-in-law has many talents,” he explains to Tanaka, “to expect her to be able to cook would be too much.”

“Me and Gramps do most of the cooking.” Nishinoya seems quite proud of this fact. “Even when my parents are here it’s either us cooking or we get take-out.”

“My son also lacks any notable skill in the kitchen department.”

“Not true,” Nishinoya points an accusatory finger at Gramps, “he makes the best tea.”

“Ah, true enough,” Gramps concedes, “they like to tell us that’s how he wooed her.”

“Tea is my mum’s most favourite drink in the world,” Nishinoya explains happily, and Tanaka finds himself grinning. It’s not often people like to talk about their parents in front of him, as if they should pretend theirs don’t exist simply because he’s missing his. “She must drink a dozen cups a day easy. All kinds of weird flavours too.”

“We like a little eccentricity in a person, Mr. Tanaka, I hope you understand.” Gramps pauses until Tanaka nods his agreement. “And since my lovely daughter-in-law is so controlled in so many aspects, her eccentric tea drinking is naturally our favourite thing about her.”

“That,” Nishinoya agrees, “and when she finds something funny, which is almost eclipse-levels rare, she cackles like a banshee!”

“Which I suppose is what caused my banshee-loving son to fall so deeply for her,” Gramps sighs wistfully.

“It’s a genetic problem,” Nishinoya whispers conspiratorially, “Nana used to cackle loud enough to rattle the windows.”

“And on spring mornings when she visits us on a breeze she still does.” Gramps smiles fondly at the open window. “It’s a terrible thing, Mr. Tanaka, to lose someone you hold so dear.” His eyes flicker pointedly over to him and Tanaka feels his heart thud uneasily – the look he sends him is like he already knows.

“It’s often best, I feel, to simply be thankful for the time that we did have, hm?” Tanaka stares at him, dismayed for a moment because he thinks Gramps is expecting him to reply, but then he’s waving a hand in the air, and passing Nishinoya his empty dish. “But let us not fall into melancholy on such a beautiful day, what kind of things have you planned to do with Mr. Tanaka, young Yo-yo?”

“Well,” Nishinoya shrugs as if he’s not got that concrete of a plan, talking to Gramps over his shoulder as he starts washing his dish for him, “I figured we’d play volleyball until it gets too hot out.”

“Naturally,” Gramps nods sagely.

“Then we can go downstairs and play games in the den; he brought over a second controller.”

“Delightful!” Tanaka gets the distinct impression that Gramps is not mocking them in the slightest and really does find their plan for the day delightful.

“What about you?” Tanaka asks, wondering if maybe it would be rude not to include him in their day.

“I suppose I might watch a little of your volleyball practice,” Gramps hums thoughtfully, “but only for a moment or two. I bought a puzzle on Thursday that’s been begging for my attention ever since.”

“Puzzles,” Nishinoya rolls his eyes as he turns off the tap, wiping his hands on the front of his shorts, “are just one of Gramps’ many eccentricities.”

“That’s really cool!” Nishinoya’s face splits into a bright laugh, insisting that it’s much funnier than it should be because he knows Tanaka’s being serious. He has a really great laugh, Tanaka thinks, so vibrant and warm that it lights up the room around them and anyone lucky enough to be stood in it.

“You best get out of here now Yo-yo,” Gramps winks at Tanaka slyly, “before Mr. Tanaka decides he’d rather play puzzles with me than volleyball with you.”

“Pfft, not likely!” But Nishinoya skips over to latch onto Tanaka’s arm and drag him away all the same. “He’s got volleyball in his blood!”

“Maybe next time?” Tanaka offers, feeling a little guilty, even though he’s not sorry in the slightest.

“I’ll hold you to that Mr. Tanaka.” Gramps nods at him just as he’s dragged out the door.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Playing volleyball with Nishinoya is absolutely the best kind of volleyball Tanaka has ever played.

They play past it getting too hot out. They play until the sun is high in the sky and they’re both dripping in sweat, leg muscles spasming from how much running and jumping they’ve done. They play until Nishinoya physically collapses on his knees on the floor, nose, cheeks and arms kissed pink by the sun as he lets the volleyball bounce away behind him. He stares at Tanaka, panting, as Tanaka rests his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

“You play like you’ll never get to play again, anyone ever told you that?” He asks eventually, smile splitting his face in two.

“Not really.” Tanaka lifts his shirt to wipe at his forehead again. Volleyball has never felt so good, so of course he’s never played as hard as this. Plus, there’s something about how exceptional Nishinoya is at volleyball that makes him want to push himself to improve too.

“That so?” Nishinoya groans as he rolls over completely, splaying his arms and legs out wide around him like a star. “Well,” he tips his head in Tanaka’s direction and squints against the sun, “we’ll play again tomorrow.” It’s not a question, and the certainty in his voice fills Tanaka with… with _something_. Some feeling he’s never felt before. Like his insides are made up entirely of honey.

This must be what it’s like, he thinks, to really be part of a team.

“Yeah,” he lets himself drop to the ground and crawls over to lie on his back next to Nishinoya, “tomorrow.”

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Out of Tanaka’s new group of friends only Ennoshita has a name.

“Ya-ma-mo-to Ta-ke-to-ra,” Tanaka reads, then smirks, “bit of a mouthful.” Nishinoya bursts into bright peals of laughter as Ennoshita lets go of his bottom lip and the name disappears back inside his mouth. Tanaka’s never seen someone with a name on the inside of their lip like that before.

“Tell me about it.”

“Pretty romantic place to have a name, Chika.” Nishinoya wiggles his eyebrows. “It’s like you’re tasting him all day!” Tanaka snorts when Ennoshita’s face burns bright red.

“He runs his tongue along it all the time in class,” Narita grins when Ennoshita flops his face into his hands and groans.

“Snitch.” He grumbles.

“Kinda pervy, making out with his name without his knowledge.” Kinoshina high-fives Narita when his latest comment makes Ennoshita drop his forehead onto the lunch table with a resounding thunk.

“Please stop.”

“Awww Chika,” Tanaka kicks his legs under the table in a way he hopes is comforting, “we’re just teasing. It’s really cute.” Ennoshita’s eyes peak up from the table at them.

“Really?”

“Super cute!” Nishinoya agrees readily. “I bet he secretly licks you all the time too!”

“Oh my God.” Ennoshita splutters uselessly before dropping his head back down. “It’s just a habit,” his muffled voice floats up from the table. “I don’t mean anything by it. It’s been there so long.”

“How long?”

“Hmm,” Ennoshita seems to think about it as he sits back up, “since before I had such a gross group of friends.” Kinoshita and Narita high-five again, clearly flattered.

“So, like, before junior high then?” Tanaka’s glad it’s Nishinoya asking all the questions. If it was him, he’s not sure he’d be able to mask his ever-growing fear of never finding a name behind his honest curiosity.

“Yeah,” Ennoshita furrows his brow, “since I was really little. My grandma said she noticed it when I was showing her a wobbly tooth when I was five.”

“ _Five_?” Narita blinks owlishly.

“Yeah, but that’s when they found it!” Kinoshita chimes in, looking as dumbfounded as Tanaka feels. “It could have been there ages before!”

“Do ya think it could have been there since you were born?” Tanaka’s seen a movie like that. Two childhood best friends who were born with each other’s name looped around their wrists like bracelets. Ennoshita shrugs.

“I don’t know? Maybe?”

“That’s super cool!” Nishinoya is vibrating in his seat. “And super romantic!” Ennoshita laughs, face a soft pink.

“Well, I still haven’t met him,” he shrugs, “so romantic or not it could be ages before we find each other.”

“Man, I bet you’ll be romantic soulmates. Like, super gross and _super_ lovey-dovey.” Nishinoya flutters his eyelashes, “with disgusting pet names and everything.”

“Right! Gazing into each other’s eyes all _baby, you taste even better than your name_.” Kinoshita sighs dreamily.

“Jesus Christ.” But Ennoshita’s amusement seems to be overriding his mortification. “I hope none of you are around when I meet him.”

“Rude,” Narita tuts, feigning offense, “I vow to follow you around from now on until you find him, just so I can tell him you’ve been dreaming about snogging his face off your entire life.”

“I’ll help!” Kinoshita slings an arm around Narita, “you’re totally ignoring the wing-man potential we’re offering you.”

“They’re _soulmates_ ,” Tanaka shoves at the two of them, “as if they’ll need any help!” If they happen to be around when Ennoshita meets this Yamamoto guy for the first time, he hopes that for once they’ll collectively have the tact to leave them to it.

“Man, I can’t wait to find my name.” Nishinoya sighs. “Oi, Ryuu, check the inside of my mouth real quick, maybe I’ve got some cutie tucked under my tongue.”

“Sure, sure.” Tanaka ducks his head to dutifully peer into Nishinoya’s mouth. His tongue flops and curls, twisting on itself to showcase every angle, but there’s no name hidden inside. He shakes his head. “What about me?” He opens his mouth in return and wiggles his tongue around. It would be kind of embarrassing to find his name right now in front of everyone, so he’s a little relieved when Nishinoya shakes his head no too.

“It was worth a shot.” They shrug their shoulders at each other. Nishinoya’s attention flickers back to Ennoshita, who is watching them fondly. “I never knew people could get them in their mouths before, so I’ve never checked.”

“Nothing except rice.” Narita nods, apparently finished with his own inspection of Kinoshita’s mouth.

“Damn Chika,” Kinoshita’s mouth quirks up wickedly on one side, “guess you’re the only one of us keeping your soulmate wet all day long.”

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Ennoshita might be the only one out of the first years, but pretty much all of the second and third years on their volleyball team have their names already.

Tanaka discovers each of them slowly; eye catching on the characters that peak out over the waistband of Sawamura's short, so neat that they could be printed; attention snagging when their Captain jumps in front of him and he notices the gold pressed behind his knee like a secret; gaze wandering during stretches and landing on the small, cute writing wrapped gently around Azumane’s pinky finger; light catching the kiss of gold tucked safely behind Shimizu’s ear whenever she tucks her hair back; the bold stamp on the back of their vice’s neck that winks over the top of his collar all the time.

But Sugawara doesn’t have one.

Tanaka only knows this for certain because one evening after practice he forgets his phone in his locker and when he backpedals to pick it up, he finds Sugawara draped dramatically over a couple of benches, the back of his hand pressed against his forehead.

“Oh, woe is me,” he laments, voice pitched a few octaves deeper than usual. Tanaka only realises he’s trying to impersonate Sawamura because of Sawamura’s answering snort from his open locker. “How awful my life is that my soulmate should make their existence known to me cinematically on my thirteenth birthday, their perfect handwriting delicately scrawled in an understatedly sexy way around my hip.” Sugawara screeches in mock outrage when Sawamura tosses his sweaty shirt from practice in his face.

“You know I wasn’t complaining about his existence.” Tanaka doesn’t even have to see Sawamura’s face to know that he’s rolling his eyes. “It’s just–”

“You’re not a very patient person,” Sugawara hums agreeably.

“That’s not what I was going to say.” Sugawara raises a single eyebrow. “I’m a very patient person.”

“No Dai, you’re not.” Sawamura sighs heavily. “We’re only sixteen. You’ll find him before you know it.”

“I guess,” Sawamura grumbles, sitting down on the bench opposite Sugawara. “But I want to know him _now_. What if we’re totally incompatible? We could completely hate each other. It just seems like a waste of time.”

“A waste of time…?” Sugawara shoots up on his bench, eyes boggling wildly. “Dai, _please_ don’t tell me you’re _saving_ yourself for this guy?” Sawamura pointedly does not look at Sugawara. “Oh my God! Dai! You’re too much!” He gapes for several moments. “Sometimes I forget that you’re the world’s most useless person.”

“I prefer to think of it as romantic.” Tanaka’s never seen Sawamura pout before; it’s disarming in a way that he wasn’t quite prepared for.

“Call it what you want, Dai, it’s still totally useless.” He shuffles closer towards Sawamura, their knees almost touching. “Have you at least _kissed_ someone?” Sawamura coughs awkwardly in the silence that follows Sugawara’s question. “You’ve got to be _kidding_ me!” Sugawara is screeching again, slapping a hand across his face like he’s trying to wake himself up from a dream. “That’s what’s the waste here! You’re way too hot to be living life unkissed!”

“I don’t care about kissing a bunch of random people.”

“Well, you should,” Sugawara pokes his tongue out playfully, “it’s really fun”. Sawamura frowns deeply, thumb itching across his hip. “You’re kind of ridiculous, you know that right? You’re literally pining after this guy and you don’t even know him.”

“Yeah,” it seems somewhat painful for Sawamura to admit this, “I know. I just feel like it’d be unfaithful to him.”

“Hmmm… would you be upset if you’re not his first kiss?”

“Not upset, just–” Sawamura breaks off, whole hand covering his name as he groans in frustration.

“Just…?”

“It’s so pathetic! Like, he’s supposed to be mine? His first kiss should totally belong to me, right? If someone else took it… I’d be so unbelievably jealous.” Sugawara takes his free hand into both of his, smiling fondly.

“The world’s most useless person,” he proclaims, patting the back of his hand gently. “And apparently one of the pettiest.”

“That’s rich coming from you.”

“Ouch, you wound me!” Sugawara clutches at his heart. “It’s not unfaithful for you to kiss whoever you want; it’s not unfaithful for him to kiss whoever he wants. You guys haven’t even met yet! You don’t have to wait around for him if you don’t want to Dai, you could just, live your life.”

“I know you’re right, it’s just frustrating.”

“You’re telling me,” Sugawara tuts, “at least you have a name to be getting all angsty and insufferable over.” Sawamura winces slightly at that.

“Sorry.”

“What for? I’m massively flattered by it. Whoever is promised to me must be top-tier hotness, probably a mysterious and wealthy prince to boot.”

“How’d you figure that?”

“Good things come to those who wait Dai, everyone knows that. Hip-boy is probably a sewer gremlin in comparison to my betrothed.”

“Oi!”

“Oh God, _please_ don’t start defending him. I might actually throw-up.” Sawamura chuckles warmly at that, softly punching Sugawara on the shoulder.

“I won’t. But I am going to make you eat your words when he turns out to be both charming and devilishly handsome.”

“Handsome guys don’t write that neatly,” Sugawara dismisses, “he’s definitely some kind of nerdy gremlin. I bet nobody wants to kiss him at all and you’re worried over nothing.”

“I bet your soulmate is only four years old.”

“Dai!”

“You’ll be thirty-two by the time he’s twenty. Sad.”

“Oh… I’m not totally against that… I could be his Suga-daddy.” Sugawara’s cackle chokes off as Sawamura slaps at his face.

“You’re beyond saving.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you!”

Tanaka figures that they’ve probably finished their conversation by this point, so he puffs out his chest and makes a show of loudly stomping into the room. They pause in their wrestling to look up at him.

“Tanaka-kun!” Sugawara coos cheerily.

“Suga-san, Daichi-san,” he waves, “I forgot my phone.” If either Sugawara or Sawamura are aware he’s been lingering for the last few minutes listening in on their conversation, they don’t mention it.

“Say, Tanaka-kun,” Sugawara lilts his voice playfully, “do you have a name yet?” Tanaka’s eyes flick back to look at the them.

“No.” He shrugs. It’s getting harder to ignore the ache at the pit of his stomach when he thinks about being nameless.

“Snap!” Sugawara lights up as if Tanaka’s chosen his side in a fight. “See Dai, all the best people have to wait the longest. It’s like our holy penance for being so outrageously beautiful.” He throws an arm out to encompass himself and Tanaka together in his statement and Tanaka feels all his blood rush to his face. Sugawara is all sorts of soft and pretty, leagues and leagues apart from Tanaka’s rough edges and clumsy hands.

“You’re probably right.” Sawamura nods in agreement, looking up at Tanaka fondly. “They always save the best ‘til last.” Tanaka splutters, despite knowing there’s no truth at all to that statement; Ennoshita is the most wholesome person Tanaka knows and he was likely born with his name. Still, he feels ridiculously flattered anyway. Sugawara’s eyes gleam.

“And hey, if we both end up being nameless, I’ll gladly be your Suga-daddy.” Sugawara cackles as if it’s the first time he’s made the joke, breaking off into another wail when Sawamura leans over to strangle him.

[ ](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/614954911439781899/619231584549208100/Screenshot_1815.png)

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

The last day of spring is the first time Tanaka invites Nishinoya to his house.

“I’ve never been more excited to see a house before,” Nishinoya enthuses on his doorstep, eyes looking past Tanaka and darting around the walls of his entrance. “Not that Gramps doesn’t love having you at ours, but I feel like I’ve known you _forever_ so it’s weird that I don’t even know what kinda blanket cover you sleep under!”

“Uh,” Tanaka shifts from foot to foot and scratches the back of his head, “before you come inside… can we go for a walk?”

“Oh.” Nishinoya visibly deflates before re-amping himself back up. “Sure! I love walking!”

“Thanks.” Tanaka shouts back inside to let Saeko know he’s stepping out and then softly closes the door behind him as he joins Nishinoya on his doorstep.

He takes the lead, pointing at each of his neighbours houses in turn and telling Nishinoya who lives there and something he finds fun about them: the Hamada’s who have been married since before Tanaka can remember and have four kids, all away at various universities, but none of them ever forget to send their dad a new weird tie for his weird tie collection on his birthday; Ms. Hashimoto who grows all her own vegetables and always gifts him and Saeko what she forever claims are her leftovers, but they both know are her best ones; Mrs. Yasuda whose wife works away a lot, but everyone always knows when she’s back home because they’ll play jazz music all night long; the house sort of opposite his own where Kanoka and her mum live, and even though he hardly bumps into her these days since their schools are in opposite directions and they’re both so consumed with their own practices, he still describes her as the coolest girl he knows.

“Cooler than Kiyoko-san?”

“Hmm,” Tanaka likes Shimizu a lot, she’s really calm, cool and beautiful, but he doesn’t really know her the way he knows Kanoka, “yeah I think so. She’s super tall and she’s a natural at volleyball!” And she’s also the only real friend he ever used to have. Nishinoya grins.

“You’ll have to introduce us sometime!”

“Yeah, sure!” Tanaka nods in agreement, leading Nishinoya down the hidden path they used to always use on their walk to junior high and telling him about Kanoka’s first practice.

He weaves a pattern through his small neighbourhood, pointing out the shop that sells the best dumplings and showing him the tree he once fell out of when he was looking for fairies; he still maintains that was Saeko’s fault since she was the one who told him they lived at the top. He makes sure they walk past the Nitta’s house because they breed cats and they always have a couple sunbathing on the grass out front just waiting for someone willing to scratch their ears, and he detours just a little out of their way to show Nishinoya the park where his mum first showed him how to play volleyball.

When they get to Tanaka’s favourite hill, the tallest one in his neighbourhood, he comes to a stop.

“We need to roll down it,” he tells Nishinoya, “it’s a short-cut.”

“A short-cut to what?”

“You’ll see at the bottom.” He grins, “I’ll race you!” and then he leaps a step in front of Nishinoya, who yells after him that’s cheating, but Tanaka happens to know Nishinoya is an expert at leaping and can jump much farther than he can, so he was just giving himself a completely fair head-start.

He’s right, of course, Nishinoya beats him to the bottom by at least five feet. His hair is frazzled madly and his top is completely covered in grass, but he’s laughing along with Tanaka so he knows he’s having fun at least.

Just beyond the bottom of the hill is an old wooden fence that Tanaka happens to know very well. He gets up, holding his hand out to pull Nishinoya up and drags them over to the fence.

“There are one hundred and sixteen posts along this fence,” he says, mostly to himself but Nishinoya pulls a face.

“How do you know that?”

“I’ve counted them. Once or twice.” He grins and skips his fingers along the first few posts, leading the way to the gate at the very end.

Nishinoya has always been much smarter than Tanaka, and Tanaka suspects he figured it out right in that moment at the fence, but he doesn’t say anything until Tanaka has walked them quietly through the shrine and brought them to a stop in front of his parents. Even then, all he manages is a soft _oh_.

Tanaka can’t look at him, too worried to face his pity, so instead he bows at his parents, and then gestures with an arm at Nishinoya.

“Ma, Pa, this is Nishinoya.” He hears Nishinoya audibly swallow as he takes a step closer. “He’s my best friend; I’ve told you heaps about him.”

“Ah,” Nishinoya tugs on his elbow, “you have?” Tanaka turns to stare at him then, heart stuttering when all he sees on Nishinoya’s face is a soft flush of embarrassment.

“Yeah, of course. You’re kind of important to me,” he teases, flicking Nishinoya on the forehead. “I wanted to introduce you guys sooner, but, it’s– sometimes when people know, they kind of– I didn’t _not_ want to tell you, y’know I–“

“Shh,” Nishinoya presses a finger to Tanaka’s mouth to shut him up, “you don’t need to explain anything.” And then he steps forward, bowing much deeper than Tanaka himself did. “Mr. Tanaka, Mrs. Tanaka, I’m really glad to finally meet you.”

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Every morning when Tanaka wakes up to shower, he does a quick three-sixty check for any names. Just a once over, a quick glance up and down his legs as he soaps them, and a little peer around his arms as he rinses off. He checks out his face and back in the mirror as he dries and that way he can convince himself he’s not obsessively searching and is instead just obsessively clean.

Every morning it’s the same. And every morning he remains nameless.

He tries not to panic, tries not to think about it too much; tries really hard to see things the way Sugawara does. And it gets better, bit by bit. The knot in his stomach that he’d grown so accustomed to carrying starts to feel lighter, even if just a little.

Even when Kinoshita turns up at practice one morning with gold folded over his right knee like a bandage and even when, months after on a slow Sunday afternoon, Narita sends their group chat a picture of his freshly shaved head, the name _Narumi Kikuchi_ running along his hairline.

 _Who knows how long she’s been hiding there!!_ His caption reads.

 _She was just shy, bro._ Tanaka types back, making sure to send a dozen emojis to show how happy he is for his friend.

 _Shy girls are the cutest!!!!_ Kinoshita attaches a selfie of his grinning face this time and Tanaka wills the happiness he feels for his friend to drown out the pinch of jealousy. After all, it’s not like Narita's met her yet.

As far as Tanaka can tell only their vice-captain Sato, who’s dating his soulmate, and Azumane, who’s decidedly not dating his, have met their matches. Michimiya Yui, a cute girl who plays on the girls’ volleyball team, is Azumane’s soulmate. It’s not like he has a habit of eavesdropping, but she swings by to see Azumane and the other second years often – she went to the same middle school as Sawamura – and he’s overheard enough to realise they’re a friendship match. A very good friendship match. The kind of best friendship match Tanaka used to dream of before he started to think that the crush Ennoshita has on his mystery Yamamoto, the soft look that steals across Sato’s face whenever his girlfriend is mentioned and the useless pining that Sawamura apparently does in secret might be nice too.

Before he realises he’s made the decision to phone him at all, Nishinoya answers his call with a chirp just slightly off his usual level of enthusiasm.

“So, I guess it’s just me, you and Suga-san left, huh?”

“My parents didn’t find theirs until they were sixteen,” Tanaka’s not entirely sure if he’s trying to comfort Nishinoya or remind himself of this fact. Nishinoya hums on the other end, the noise that’s usually so comforting once again slightly off. Tanaka frowns. Maybe Nishinoya’s more worried than he’s letting on. Maybe that’s why when Tanaka opens his mouth “Want to come over and shave my head to check?” falls out unplanned instead.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

“Well,” Nishinoya’s small fingers tingle as they run across Tanaka’s brand-new buzz cut, “the bad news is you’re still nameless.” He flops down on his back behind Tanaka. “But the excellent news is you look totally cooler this way.” Tanaka twists so he can flop down next to him.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah! Makes you look badass.” Tanaka grins up at his bedroom ceiling.

“Thanks, Noya-san.”

“Ryuu,” Nishinoya is consulting Tanaka’s bedroom ceiling too but with a much less pleased expression stealing across his face. “Do you think it’s such a bad thing? To be nameless?”

“I’m not sure.” Tanaka says slowly. Nishinoya rolls over to stare at the side of his face. “I used to think it would be awful.”

“Used to?”

“Yeah, ‘cause like, in my junior high school I didn’t really have friends like I do now. And I kinda thought,” he pauses, feeling his face flush a little, “that it was okay, ‘cause one day I’d find my name and I’d know there was someone out there who was made for me, y’know?”

“I wish we had always gone to the same school.” Tanaka rolls to stare at Nishinoya, grinning at the soft look in his eyes.

“We’d have caused too much trouble.”

“Maybe.” He beams at him, all teeth showing. “But it would have been loads of fun.” Nishinoya wiggles closer to him on the bed. “And I wouldn’t have let you be lonely, not even for a second.”

“Being nameless wouldn’t be _so_ bad.” Tanaka chews on his bottom lip. “It would suck a fair amount,” he amends, “spending your whole life thinking you weren’t made to fit anybody else, but it wouldn’t be the worst, since I already found a best friend like you.” His first dream, his oldest dream, was to find a perfect best friend after all. Nishinoya’s smile swallows his whole face, he hiccups, and then bursts into tears.

“Ah,” he blinks, great fat tears rolling sideways across his face and pooling on Tanaka’s blanket, “sorry.” He seems shocked by his own emotion, scrubbing roughly at his face like he can force himself to stop crying. Tanaka doesn’t know what to do except bundle himself on top of his best friend and make soothing noises, rubbing his hands across his back and through his hair.

“You don’t need ta apologise, Noya-san.” If Tanaka were Saeko or Sugawara he thinks he’d know the correct order of words to string together to make whatever’s upsetting Nishinoya disappear. But he’s not, so he doesn’t.

“It’s stupid.” Nishinoya sniffs. “It’s stupid, but I’m scared. I don’t want to be nameless. Even though I know it’s not bad. It feels bad.”

There’s something about hearing his own fears spoken out loud in Nishinoya’s small and shaky voice that makes it feel as if someone is picking at an old wound of his, cracking a scab he thought was almost healed and prodding their finger into it just to be certain that it still stings.

“I know.” He tells him, because he does. “It’s okay.” He tells him, because he wants it to be.

“No, no,” Nishinoya pushes at him, forcing a sliver of space between them, “you don’t know.”

“I’m nameless.” Tanaka states needlessly. Nishinoya’s entire body shakes in rejection.

“Ryuu– The thing is– I’m not–“ Tanaka places both of his hands firmly onto his shoulders and looks at him seriously.

“Noya-san, you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.”

“My parents aren’t soulmates.” He blurts, quickly and quietly, and then pants with wide eyes, as if he’s trying to suck the words back into his mouth.

“Oh.”

“They love each other,” he clarifies for no reason. Tanaka’s been to the Nishinoya household a bunch of times when Nishinoya’s parents have been in town and anyone can see they’re crazy about each other. “But they’re not soulmates.”

“Yeah,” Tanaka dries Nishinoya’s wet cheeks with the cuff of his shirt. “it’s not so weird Noya-san. Not everyone falls in love with their soulmates.”

“My mum’s nameless.”

“Oh.”

“And my dad’s soulmate...” He closes his eyes and sucks in a big breath. “My dad’s soulmate died. He never got to meet her.”

“Oh. Shit.” Tanaka winces despite himself. He can’t imagine what it would feel like to work out who your soulmate was only to be told you were too late; they’d died already. To be left with their name on you always without ever getting to see their smile, or listen to their voice, or hold their hand. It hurts Tanaka just to think about. “That sucks so bad.” An understatement if ever there was one, but Tanaka doesn’t know how else to express how that makes him feel.

“What if,” Nishinoya’s lip trembles, “I’m impossible to match to anyone? Doomed to be nameless because of my parents.”

“No. Definitely not. Never. Not the case at all.” Tanaka drops his forehead onto Nishinoya’s, pressing them together firmly. “I don’t believe that at all.”

“But–“

“No. Noya-san, your parents are in love. Ridiculously and stupidly in love. Soulmates or not,” he swallows steadily, and speaks his next words as clearly as he can; it’s important Nishinoya understands, “they remind me of my parents.”

“Oh. _Shit_.”

“Yeah.” He smiles at Nishinoya’s blinking face.

“Any kid made from parents so absurdly in love is going to be impossibly loveable right?”

“I’m nameless.” He says, like it’s a valid rebuttal. Like it’s a point worth noting. Like it changes anything about him as a person.

“You’re loveable and complete all on your own, Noya-san.” Nameless or not, Tanaka realises, it’s suddenly not half as important as he used to think it was.

“Ah,” Nishinoya’s face flares red, “that’s how I feel about you Ryuu.”

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

So, they become second years, and Tanaka keeps his buzz-cut, and slowly stops searching for names.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'd like to once again thank @mossyace for my life. 
> 
> & also thank you for reading（๑✧∀✧๑）; this fic is shaping up to be around eight chapters long. i'm going to try & post a new one every few days & will update tags for new characters & bg pairings as they appear, so strap in for the ride.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy voting day to all the brits & happy average thursday to everyone else.

They’re lying upside-down hanging off the edge of the sofa, Nishinoya’s orange tuft just kissing the floor, watching a re-run of some old anime on the telly when Saeko kicks the door open and throws her bag across the room in fury. Light spills around her silhouette and Tanaka watches in mild curiosity as she seems to catch her breath only in order to howl as loudly as she can. Which is pretty loud. This is Saeko after all.

“It's him, huh?” Nishinoya asks pleasantly.

“Did you bring us back any melonpan?”

“Yes.” Saeko slams the door shut and slumps onto the floor. “Yes.”

“You’re the best.” Tanaka rolls his legs over his head to land in a puddle on the floor and crawls over to where her bag was fired to forage for melonpan.

“First meeting went that well?” Nishinoya is still hanging upside-down by the time Tanaka’s crawled his way over to Saeko, melonpan in hand, but he’s twisted his head to the side to look at them.

“I’m _furious_.” Saeko seethes, tearing into the chunk of melonpan Tanaka offers to her as if it’s the melonpan that has so grievously wronged her.

“He seems pretty cool.” Tanaka shrugs. They’ve been pestering him all week on Sugawara’s secret orders because apparently Takeda-sensei wants him to be their new coach. Tanaka has no idea how Sugawara came to discover this, but he’s never turned down an opportunity to be a pest before. “Even though he’s a little older.”

“He’s five years older.” Saeko grumbles, evidently pissed off about that fact. “And he bleaches his fucking hair.” Nishinoya squawks in half-hearted offense.

“He’s a volleyball player.” He whisper-shouts. “Or, was, I guess.”

“Exactly. An ex-setter.” Saeko shudders. “He’s got two piercings in his left ear, did ya know that? And he rides a _motorcycle._ ”

“I see.” Tanaka nods in sympathy when really she’s just making him sound way cooler than he did before.

“He smokes and lives in his own flat with his two cats, one of which has only three legs; the other one is deaf. He had the _nerve_ , the goddamn _audacity_ to introduce me to them!” Her face has taken on a purple hue, she swivels to stare at Tanaka dead in the eyes. “He introduced me to his deaf cat using sign language. He signed. An introduction. To his cat.”

“Oh.” Tanaka would very much enjoy being uncle to these two cats. It’s a new dream of his.

“And he called me _kid_ in this aggravatingly hot voice – _nice to finally meet you, kid_ – that’s what he said to me!” She throws her hands in the air. “Goddamn it!”

“You’re kind of a kid to him I guess?” Nishinoya’s grin looks slightly manic the wrong way up.

“I’m furious!” She yells again, bumping the back of her head into the door. “He was supposed to be boring and ugly and happily disappear from my life. But no, that would have been just too easy. He had to be the exact perfect balance of bad boy and pretty boy that I’ve always secretly dreamt of, didn’t he?”

“Bleached hair included?”

“Bleached fucking hair included.” She scowls when Nishinoya cheers happily and flops himself right side up finally to join them by the door. Tanaka pulls Saeko in for a hug.

“I’m happy for you.” He tells her, and he really is. She deserves nothing less than the exact guy of her secret dreams.

“Well don’t be. He’s absolutely perfect and I hate him.” She glances down at the name on the soft bit of skin just below her inner elbow. “Ukai Keishin,” she addresses the name aggressively, maybe for the first time ever as Tanaka’s certainly never heard her say it out loud, “you’re absolutely perfect and I hate you.” Nishinoya hums.

“I can’t wait to meet his cats.” 

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Kiku, Ukai’s deaf cat, is not a fan of strangers. She blinks at Tanaka and Nishinoya from her perch on the open window with growing scepticism as the minutes tick by and they seem to be making no immediate move out of her shop. They bought a bag of cat toys and treats on their way over because it’s rude to turn up empty-handed and they figured since they’ve undoubtedly failed to give Ukai the impression they are normal, well-adjusted and polite individuals, perhaps they can convince his cats.

“You named him Pumpkin ‘cause of his hair, right?” Nishinoya is sat cross-legged on the floor facing Kiku’s window. Pumpkin clearly doesn’t share Kiku’s wariness for new faces as he’s already braced his one front leg on Nishinoya’s chest and is licking Nishinoya’s face and purring loudly. The fact that his hair is the exact same colour as Nishinoya’s lightning streak is probably why it’s the cutest thing Tanaka can remember ever seeing. He’s been crawling around the two of them and taking pictures and videos for the past five minutes.

“Pumpkin’s half his name.” Seemingly unbothered that they’ve returned, though that could be in part due to the fact they’ve returned to fawn over his cats and not bug him about volleyball, Ukai has been watching them idly from his check-out desk, imparting cat facts every so often. “But it’s for his hair, yeah.”

“What’s the other half?”

“Pi.”

“Pie?” Nishinoya blinks curiously. “For his eye colour?”

“What? No.” Ukai smirks, evidently proud of himself. “‘Cause he’s only got 3.14 legs.”

“Ah!” Nishinoya looks over at Tanaka abruptly. “Pi!”

“Pumpkin Pi,” Tanaka agrees, face hurting from how much he’s smiling.

“Oh God, I love him.”

“Such a good kitty!” Tanaka shuffles forwards so he can get a hand in on the action, scratching up and down Pumpkin’s sides and burying his face in his soft, fluffy back. Kiku meows loudly from her vantage point, clearly attempting to warn Pumpkin about his perilous situation, but he’s too busy licking the inside of Noya’s ear to take her seriously.

“He only pretends to be good so you’ll shower him in attention.” Ukai narrows his eyes at Pumpkin. “He’s actually the worst.” Noya gasps.

“I refuse to listen to such slander against his good name.”

“Ukai-san, with all due respect,” Tanaka can feel Pumpkin’s purring vibrating through him and thinks this is quite possibly the best way he’s ever spent a Thursday night, “you’re a dumbass.” Ukai arches one eyebrow perfectly.

“I don’t want to be hearing that from you.” Tanaka might have felt suitably offended if Kiku didn’t decide at that exact moment to pounce down from her perch to inspect the situation from up close. She still doesn’t seem to be comfortable enough to touch them, but she sniffs so closely at Tanaka that her whiskers tickle his thigh. “Besides, ya think ya should be calling your coach a dumbass? You’ll be running laps of the gym all day tomorrow if you’re not careful.”

“Ehhh?” Kiku retreats back a good step when Tanaka and Nishinoya both jolt to wail in unison, but Pumpkin seems to enjoy their outburst as he promptly joins in with a yowl of his own.

“That Takeda-sensei of yours sure is pushy.”

“Really? You’re gonna coach us?”

“Guess I might do.” Ukai shrugs as if it’s of no real importance. “Your sister seemed to think it was a good idea.”

“Saeko did?” Tanaka isn’t actually certain he mentioned that part to her. In fact, he’s pretty sure he told Saeko that they noticed what looked like her name on Ukai’s arm when he gave them the change for their ice lollies. He grins at Ukai. “You guys spoke a lot, huh?”

“We spoke.” His gaze falls to the desk. “She said it was just you guys.”

“She did?” Seems like a weird thing for her to bring up.

“Well, I mighta mentioned that I should meet her folks, y’know?”

“Introduce yourself and swear only pure intentions?” It’s clear Nishinoya is enjoying Ukai’s discomfort. “And all that jazz?”

“That’d be the gist of it, yeah.”

“You can do that to us,” Nishinoya smiles brightly, “you’re a little on our good side for having cats anyway.”

“And a little on our bad side for bad-mouthing them.” Tanaka doesn’t want to make it entirely easy for him. Especially as, even though he might be Saeko’s perfect balance of bad boy and pretty boy, he doesn’t know if this guy has a secret family or an unpaid debt to a yakuza boss or think that Saeko might be anything less than the best person in the world.

“He wakes me up every morning by placing a dead mouse or bird on my face.”

“Tokens of his love and appreciation!” Nishinoya hugs onto Pumpkin. “You’re so ungrateful.”

“Pretty impressive too.” 3.14 legs and still up early every morning to hunt. “An inspiration, some might say.”

“I think he forces Kiku to help.”

“Team work makes the dream work.” Without him realising, Kiku has crept up closer again. She licks the side of Tanaka’s knee as if testing his reaction, just one small tiny flick of her tongue, but Tanaka feels blessed anyway.

“Kiku seems to have a thing for your family.” Ukai’s mouth tips up into a fond smile. “She walked right up to your sister and demanded to be pet.”

“She sensed Saeko is the best.” The finality in Nishinoya’s tone makes Tanaka feel fond all over.

“Yeah.” Ukai picks at the edge of his desk. “I like her.”

“So his tastes aren’t completely flawed.” Nishinoya notes, as if Ukai can’t hear him.

“I don’t know what she wants, but I want to get to know her. See if we can’t be friends or whatever.”

“I think if you wanted,” Tanaka unfurls his hand slowly, palm up, on the floor next to Kiku, letting her sniff him on her own terms, “you could woo her.” Hopefully without using the phrase _friends or whatever_ ; Saeko might side-kick him a little for that.

“Yeah?” It’s comforting, Tanaka thinks, that someone like Ukai – a real adult with a real job who lives on his own and pays bills and everything – is still just as awkward and unsure and useless when it comes down to his soulmate. He smiles for the hundredth time that day when Kiku places one soft paw into his open hand.

“Yeah.”

“Cool.” Ukai coughs. “Man, you guys are lucky you know.” When he’s met with their matching bemused faces, Ukai rolls a hand in the air, drawing an invisible line between them. “Y’know, finding your soulmate so young and getting on so well and everythin’.” Tanaka blinks. Nishinoya blinks. They turn to blink at each other for a moment or two, before bursting into bright peals of laughter.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Technically they’ve only known each other for a little over a year, but that’s so easy for Tanaka to forget when so often it feels like they’re thinking the exact same thought at the exact same time. It’s a little weird how it doesn’t feel weird at all, how it feels like Nishinoya has always existed exactly like he does now; joint at his hip cooing around Tsukishima’s locker door.

“Was that a name I just saw?” Nishinoya asks Tanaka, pretending to not care if Tsukishima pays them any attention, despite how he’s throwing his voice in his direction and they’re very obviously discussing him.

“Mighta been! Sure looked like one to me, Noya-san!” Tsukishima’s glare is only ruined by his pink face and freshly tussled hair from where he’s tugged his shirt on over his head so quickly.

“Hmm… Sure looked like one to me too, Ryuu… I wonder why young Tsukki here is keeping it a secret from everyone…” Tsukishima’s eyes narrow dangerously.

“Noya-san, you don’t think,” Tanaka smacks himself on the forehead, “could it be that our stern-faced wannabe-gargoyle first-year is, dare I say it, embarrassed?”

“Oh no!” Nishinoya gasps dramatically, holding a hand over his mouth as he studies Tsukishima slowly. “That would just be too out of character for him, Ryuu, it might make me start to think he was actually capable of human emotions and I’m just not ready to accept that as reality yet.”

“It’s not a secret.” Tsukishima rolls his eyes. “You’re both just idiots.”

“Ehhhh?” They jostle each other bodily around his locker door so that it’s no longer shielding them.

“What do you _mean_ it’s not a secret?”

“You’ve seriously never mentioned it before!”

“Neither of you ever asked.” Tsukishima dismisses and the two of them snap their mouths shut, stunned perfectly silent.

“Well,” Tanaka tries after the silence has stretched on a beat or two passed comfortable, “ _of course_ we wouldn’t just _ask_ about it!”

“We’re not completely tactless.” Nishinoya looks a little like a disgruntled hamster, in another situation Tanaka might point that out to him; it’s a pretty cute look.

“Could have fooled me.” Tsukishima gestures at the two of them, crammed between his locker shelves and open door.

“That’s _different_. We already knew you hadda name! Asking when we don’t know one way or the other could be upsetting.”

“Yeah! We like to tease, Tsukki, _tease_! Not upset!”

“I see.” Tsukishima’s gaze flicks between the two of them. “I wouldn’t have been upset if you’d asked.”

“Because you really don’t have human emotions, we should have known.” Tanaka elbows Nishinoya, who elbows him back, which of course just means Tanaka has to elbow him back again, but this time in the soft spot between his upper two ribs that always makes him giggle. Just as Nishinoya turns to him, tickling fingers poised for attack, Tsukishima clears his throat.

“Is that all you wanted? Clarification I had a name?” Obviously they wanted to tease him about getting a name. Why else would they even care?

“Guess so.” Nishinoya shrugs, only pouting slightly. It’s way more fun when Tsukishima takes the bait and starts chasing them around the changing rooms with his angry vein popping on his forehead.

“Did you see who it is?”

“Ah!” That catches their interest. “Is it someone we know?”

“Oh my God, is it someone on the team?”

“What? No.” Tsukishima is frowning at the two of them. “You didn’t see the name then?”

“Not like, up close,” Nishinoya waves his hands around, “we just saw it was arched over your left nipple.”

“Pretty saucy spot, Tsukki.” Tanaka waggles his eyebrows when it seems the location is something that does embarrass Tsukishima slightly; he’s turning pink.

“I thought you guys might have met him before.”

“Ehh?” Nishinoya tips his head to the exact same side that Tanaka has tipped his head in.

“Is he a second-year?” Tanaka tries to think of people in his class that would be a good match for Tsukishima. Does he know someone who’s more determined to make friends than Tsukishima is determined not to have any?

“Yes, not here though.”

“Then how’d we know him?” Nishinoya tuts impatiently, “it’s not like second-years the world over have some ginormous group-chat that we’re all part of.”

“Really?” Tsukishima deadpans. “I always assumed you did.”

“Oooooooh, does he play volleyball?” Tanaka’s starting to get the hang of this soulmate stuff. As soon as he asks the question, he knows that the answer will be yes just from the way Tsukishima suddenly needs to adjust his glasses.

“He’s Captain of a team in Miyagi.”

“He’s Captain? As a second-year?” He must be pretty good then.

“Wait, wait, _wait_ , how do _you_ know that?”

“Oh, that’s a much better question, Noya-san! Tsukki, how do you know that? Huh?” Tsukishima rolls his eyes.

“How do you think? I searched his name online.”

“Oh, how the times have changed for the youth.” Nishinoya drapes himself against Tanaka as he begins to wax poetic about ‘the good old days’ when people just twiddled their thumbs their entire life until fate decided it was necessary for them to meet.

“And you’re sure it’s him?” It seems like there could be a few people with the same kind of name online. Maybe even fake people. Maybe even perverts who are hoping to get Tsukishima to meet up with them for a date only to kidnap him. Tanaka frowns; he’s definitely going to insist on playing chaperone to any meetings with online people.

“Around one-hundred-percent sure.”

Tsukishima fishes his phone out of his bag when they both start wailing about how nothing in life is _one-hundred-percent_ sure, swiping his finger a few times before passing it across to them. On the screen is an Instagram account of someone Tsukishima does not follow and who does not follow him. There’re only two photos posted so far. The first one is a group picture of his volleyball team. It seems like a slightly smaller team than Karasuno numbers-wise, but they’ve chosen to each pose as a different meme and, as everyone knows, being part of a solid meme team is the quickest way into Tanaka’s heart.

The second picture is a topless photo of just one of the meme team, presumably the someone who owns this account, at the beach. It’s dated a few months ago. _Tsukishima Kei,_ the caption reads, _I guess you must love the beach, since you decided to show up today? Can’t wait to meet you!_ He’s wearing the goofiest smile and holding his hands, joined together in a heart-shape, around his left nipple; Tsukishima’s name arches over it like an upside-down smile.

“Oh.” Nishinoya glances up at Tsukishima. “That’s way cute Tsukki, like, super amounts of cute!”

“He’s not even posted anything since. I bet he made this account just to try to find you!” This has all the makings of a great rom-com, it’s almost making Tanaka want to cry it’s so great.

“Why haven’t you followed him?”

“I don’t think he’ll be very satisfied with me.” Tsukishima doesn’t sound upset about this, just resigned to the fact. “I’m not that fond of the beach.”

“That doesn’t mean anything! You both play volleyball!”

“I’m not that fond of volleyball. Besides,” Tsukishima leans over to click on the tagged-in section of his Instagram account, “he’s loud and energetic. Those kinds of people are never satisfied with me.”

It’s true that this guy does look a good amount of loud and energetic – pretty chaotic too. A lot of the videos he’s tagged in are from members of his volleyball team, screaming inside jokes at each other and yodelling strange motivational songs during practice. And most of the pictures he’s tagged in he’s either climbed onto something he probably shouldn’t have, is laughing, or playing with a variety of dogs.

But it’s totally untrue that loud and energetic types are never satisfied with Tsukishima.

“Tsukki, I’m loud and energetic.” Tanaka pats Nishinoya on the top of his head. “Noya-san is too. And we’re super satisfied with you!”

“Yeah!” Nishinoya jumps forwards to hug Tsukishima around his middle, pulling Tanaka in to make a mini-bundle. “We always wanna spend more time with you, that’s why we poke you until you chase us!”

“I see.” Tsukishima is perhaps the worst hugger Tanaka’s ever encountered before, but he’s not tried to push them away and that’s ultimately what matters.

“You should message him! He’s obviously keen to find you!”

“Thanks, senpai,” he must have known that calling them senpai would only make them squeeze him harder, “but I think I’m just going to wait until we meet on the court like we’re supposed to.”

“You know Tsukki," Nishinoya hums fondly, "you’re a bit of a sadist. You know exactly who he is and where he is, and he has like no idea who you are or where you are. You’re enjoying making him sweat over the possibilities!”

“Of course,” Tsukishima’s mouth tips up into a smirk, “it’s more fun that way”.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

“What the ever-living fuck?” Kageyama bellows across the gym, firing a volleyball directly at Hinata’s startled face. Sawamura and Sugawara exchange a look. It’s not unusual for their oddball duo to be fighting each other, but the level of rage Kageyama is exuding right now, teamed with the fact that Hinata looks like he’s torn between vomiting and passing out and not angry at all, is definitely unusual.

“I– I– I–“ Hinata’s mouth opens and closes like a fish.

“You what?” Kageyama spits, fists clenched at his side. Hinata stares, bewildered, at the palms of his hands, face crumbling.

“I–”

“Don’t say it.” Kageyama glares at the floor. “I already saw.” And with that he stomps across the gym, throws the doors open and disappears outside. Hinata whimpers at the empty space where Kageyama no longer stands and starts to cry.

“Shou-chan,” Nishinoya is by his side in a second, scooping him up into a hug and shooting Tanaka a look. He nods and immediately sprints out of the gym after Kageyama.

By the time he finds him, kicking the life out of a helpless bush outside their school gates, Sawamura has caught up with him and for a second the three of them simply stare at each other, catching their breath, and let the awkwardness settle around them.

“You wanna talk about it?” Tanaka asks at the same time Sawamura adopts his most calming and concerned voice and offers Kageyama a gentle “Are you okay?” Kageyama scowls at them both.

“No.”

 _That’s fair enough_ , Tanaka wants to say, _you do you, man_. He doesn’t want to force Kageyama to tell them anything he doesn’t want to share, even though he knows stoic silence isn’t going to solve anything. But then Kageyama sighs, a long rumble that makes it sound like he’s hurting somewhere deep inside and holds his right hand up towards them, palm outstretched. Right in the centre, scribbled in Hinata’s childish writing, sits _Hinata Shouyou_.

“Ah.” Tanaka prods at the name without thinking and Kageyama flinches away from him. “That’s not so bad. Hinata’s really cute.” And they seem to get on pretty well when they’re not at each other’s throats.

“It doesn’t have to be a romantic match.” Sawamura adds reasonably. Kageyama swallows audibly.

“He doesn’t have my name.”

“What?” Sawamura jerks towards Kageyama like his instinct was to hug him but then he remembered that that might just scare Kageyama off.

“His hand,” Kageyama’s eyes dart between the two of them, “it’s blank. There’s no name there at all.”

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

“Would you rather,” Nishinoya tosses the ball up into the air in a soft arch towards where Tanaka is lying on his back next to him. They’re head-to-head, side-by-side, feet facing in opposite directions. “Have someone’s name show up on you and they don’t have yours, or have a person show you your name on them and theirs not be on you?”

“They’re both equally shit.” Tanaka tosses the ball back in Nishinoya’s direction. “It’s like asking would you rather believe you’re not good enough to have your name show up on your soulmate or not be good enough to get their name show up on you.”

“Well…” Nishinoya hums as he sends the ball back to Tanaka. “Which would you rather?”

“Maybe Shou-chan,” he admits after a moment, “but maybe I only think that ‘cause I saw how wrecked Kags was. The guy was trying to fight a bush.”

“I probably agree with you.” They’ve worked up such a good rhythm that when the ball comes back to Tanaka he doesn’t even have to think about it to smoothly toss it in Nishinoya’s direction. “Not because Shou-chan wasn’t torn-up, but because I think he’s more free.”

“More free?”

“Yeah… like…” Nishinoya sighs wistfully at the sky. “Kags really has no choice. He has _Hinata Shouyou_ written right there, blatantly centred in one of his genius tossing hands.” Tanaka snorts. “How’s he ever going to do _anything_ without thinking about it?”

“His carefree tossing days sure are over.” Nishinoya snorts right back at him.

“But Shou-chan… Shou-chan can really _choose_ ya’know? He gets to decide if he wants to give whatever with Kags a try, or if he wants to politely decline. And he doesn’t have the evidence of it in plain view.”

“Ah… I see… Even if Kags chooses not to try, it’ll be hard for him to find someone else without explaining.”

“Exactly.”

“So, sometimes it’s better to be nameless then?” Tanaka doesn’t have to be able to see Nishinoya’s face to know how content he is when he echoes _exactly,_ sending it up to the sinking sun along with his volleyball.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> listen, maybe ukai is the exact perfect balance of bad boy & pretty boy that i've always secretly dreamt of & i'm completely projecting, but maybe also you should mind your own business. ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shout-out to birdo & princess daisy who have by far my favourite catch-phrases in mario kart:  
>  _"waooowww"_  
>  **"hi i'm daisy"**

Yamamoto Taketora, as it turns out, is a Tokyo-city ruffian, with a bleached mohawk and angry eyebrows. He has an aura that Tanaka absolutely finds distasteful, even when Ennoshita points out in an overly fond voice that he reminds him of Tanaka – he finds himself distasteful after all. And, as it turns out, precisely zero of the second-years manage to even act like they’re not collectively losing their shit.

But it’s not like Yamamoto’s _totally_ awful. He glows a deep red all over when Ennoshita introduces himself, blurting out in a croaky voice _I knew you’d be pretty_ ; before even giving his name. The fact that he doesn’t try to pretend he didn’t say that, or worse, try to take it back, is pretty manly too. He spends a large chunk of his afternoon tugging Ennoshita around by his wrist to introduce him to his teammates, all of whom greet Ennoshita like he’s a close friend they haven’t seen in a while which makes it clear that not only has Yamamoto shown all of them his name, but he’s spoken about Ennoshita pretty frequently. When he’s not pre-occupied with showing Ennoshita off or bombarding him with a dozen questions a second he fawns over Shizumi, vowing to protect her from all forces of evil – both known and unknown – and by the time they’ve played against each other Tanaka decides he quite likes him, distasteful aura included.

“That cinches it then,” Nishinoya loops his arm around Tanaka’s shoulder in a way that looks effortlessly casual when really it’s anything but; he has to constantly tip-toe to make it happen, “Chika’s gotta be our next Captain.”

“He wasn’t gonna be already?” Tanaka quirks an eyebrow at him.

It’s not like they’ve had any real serious discussions about it. But there’s only the five of them. Sure, he and Nishinoya are the most volleyball mad – and sure, of the five of them Tanaka’s the only one who didn’t quit during last year’s fiasco or get suspended at the start of this year – but that doesn’t mean they know the first thing about leading a team. They’re both infinitely more likely to be the ones who need rounding up and captained than they are to be the ones doing the captaining. And then there’s all the fake niceties Captains have to do. All that _good game_ and hand-shaking and pretending like they don’t want to punch each other directly in the eye stuff is just too much for Tanaka to even consider.

And it’s not that Tanaka doesn’t love Narita and Kinoshita a lot, but they’re only marginally better than himself and Nishinoya when it comes to keeping on task and saying sensible things out loud to opposing teams.

“Well,” Nishinoya leans more of his weight into Tanaka, “sure he was gonna be, but now he’s _gotta_ be!” He raises a fist into the air and opens it dramatically. “Now it’s all _poetic_.”

“It’s poetic?” Tanaka fixes his gaze back to the wall Ennoshita and Yamamoto are sitting on. Yamamoto is animatedly telling a story of some kind, gesturing his hands about manically, as Ennoshita watches him with barely concealed delight. Every time Ennoshita giggles Yamamoto’s hands flail faster. “Huh.” Well, of course it’s poetic, but wasn’t it always poetic?

“Like _more_ poetic than before.”

“More poetic than probably being born with each other’s names?” It’s almost weird how there’s not a single part of Tanaka that’s agonising over this. His whole being is warm and fuzzy and light whenever he catches the pink on Ennoshita’s face or the gleam in his eyes when his gaze unthinkingly flits towards Yamamoto. He deserves to be happy. Even with some distasteful Tokyo ruffian. In a way it’s kind of comforting to find out Ennoshita has such bad taste in guys.

“Well yeah,” Nishinoya is scrunching his nose up like he’s trying to work his way through something, “I mean, Tora would have to be Captain too or it’s all useless.”

“Ah… rival Captains _is_ pretty poetic.” Tanaka nods sagely; he’s starting to pick up on whatever vibe Nishinoya was going for with this. Tanaka’s pretty sure that Nekoma only has three second years on their team; it’s not completely impossible that Yamamoto will make Captain he supposes. Nishinoya looks at the side of his face critically.

“ _So_ poetic,” he agrees, “and traditional!”

“Traditional?” Tanaka looks briefly between the two gross lovebirds on the wall and Nishinoya’s face. “There’s a tradition like this?”

“Well, there is _now_ since Daichi-san and all…” Nishinoya waves his free hand in the air and Tanaka catches the exact moment he realises Tanaka is lost because his hand freezes mid-wave and his eyes blink open comically wide. “Ryuu!” He unwraps his arm from around his shoulder just so he can look him in the eyes face-on and hold him firmly by his shoulders with both hands. “Don’t tell me you missed it!”

“Okay,” Tanaka grins, “I won’t tell you.”

“Ryuu!” Nishinoya bumps their foreheads together lightly. “How could you miss it? _Where_ were you looking?”

“Uhm…” Tanaka scrunches his forehead up in thought. “Around? I guess?” Nishinoya cackles brightly.

“Musta been! C’mon here.” He marches off with purpose, one fist curled into the material of Tanaka’s shirt, forcing him to follow along. Tanaka’s not entirely sure where they’re headed so he waves politely at all the people they stride passed, noting how Hinata has effortlessly made friends with a loud Nekoma first year who keeps bounding about the place and how Sugawara is in intense discussion with their third year libero Yaku; it’s nice how well their teams have blended together.

They stop in a seemingly random place to Tanaka, Nishinoya’s small hands grabbing at him to angle his body this way and his face that way and then he gets it. He’s supposed to be scoping out Sawamura and the cat Captain, who have apparently decided to take their break under the shade of a tree.

“Tada!” Nishinoya seems overly proud of himself.

“Chika’s gotta be Captain,” Tanaka tries to muddle through, putting their conversation down in his mind like pieces to a puzzle that he doesn’t know the picture to yet, “and Tora’s gotta be Captain, because it’s poetic _and_ traditional,” Nishinoya’s head bobs rapidly, “because, because…”

“ _Because…_ ” Nishinoya flaps a hand at their current Captains, eyes boggling. Tanaka squints.

“Ah! No way! Kuroo-senpai is Hip-boy?”

“Duh!” Nishinoya palms the centre of his forehead. “Didn’t you catch the vibes when they shook hands and introduced themselves? It was _sooo_ obvious! Suga-san even wolf-whistled!”

“Well,” Tanaka does remember that now he thinks hard about it, “I thought that was just Suga-san.” Who is probably going to be mocked incessantly now; hip-boy's turned out to be just as charming and devilishly handsome as Sawamura has been hoping.

“Pfft! I love you, bro, obliviousness included.” Nishinoya grins, all his teeth showing, so Tanaka slaps at his face. They end up in a scuffle on the floor that accidentally disrupts whatever moment Sawamura and Kuroo were enjoying under the tree, since Sawamura takes it upon himself to scold them.

And Tanaka might be oblivious sometimes, but he certainly doesn’t miss the way Kuroo’s eyes shine in amusement, or how he fondly calls Sawamura _crow dad_ under his breath _,_ or how it makes Sawamura blush high on his cheeks.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

“Psst, Tanaka-senpai.” Tanaka blinks up from where he’d been scrolling randomly through the songs on his ipod. He’s leant against the window of their bus home, with Nishinoya slumped asleep on his shoulder with the left earbud in since he broke his own ipod months ago and has been leeching off of Tanaka’s ever since.

“Shou-chan.” He takes out the right earbud from his own ear to smile warmly at Hinata, who, for whatever reason, has flopped himself backwards over his chair. Hinata’s eyes dart quickly around. Almost everyone is asleep, Kageyama at his side and Tsukishima over the aisle gap included.

“Can I, uhm, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.” Tanaka tries really hard not to show how thrilled he is to be sought out for to give advice to a kouhai.

“It’s sort of,” his eyes dart around quickly again, “personal.”

“That’s alright. I won’t tell anyone.” Except Nishinoya probably, but isn’t that implied? Hinata nods.

“Is it bad, being nameless?”

“Oh.” It’s Tanaka’s turn to look around, when really he just wants to check Nishinoya is still softly napping. He’s not sure if this question would upset him or not. “I don’t think so.” He gives the best one-shoulder shrug he can manage. Hinata rests his cheek on the back of his seat, blinking at him all lopsided.

“It doesn’t make you sad?”

“Well,” Tanaka thinks about it, “sometimes.” He probably wouldn’t be so honest to some of his other teammates. He’s definitely faked smiles before and told Narita that he super doesn’t care and has laughed Ennoshita’s quiet, worried looks off. But as it stands, Hinata is nameless too. Maybe he’s looking for someone similar. Maybe he wants to be comforted. Maybe he’s sad. “But not as much as it used to.”

“What helps you not to be sad?”

“Hmm,” out of his peripheral vision Tanaka spots trees flicking passed. He tries to count them in time with all the things that make him happy. “Volleyball,” Hinata’s face lights up in a grin, “good melonpan, cool haircuts, bad 80’s anime, odd socks, all cats,” he pauses to roll his eyes around the bus, “great teammates, my sister,” he knocks his head gently on top of Nishinoya’s, “my best friend.” Hinata’s gaze flickers down to where Kageyama’s slumped asleep against the window next to him.

“Tanaka-senpai,” he gulps and glances at the palms of his hands, rubbing his thumbs into the centres, “something happened today.”

“A good something?” Hinata winces. “Ah.” He tries to think of how the two of them had been acting today, tries to remember if they’d been more off their game or more awkward than usual. Than their new usual at least.

“I don’t have his name.” Tanaka’s not spoken to Hinata about it directly like this before, and suddenly he thinks he and Nishinoya might have come to the wrong conclusion. It’s evident that not having Kageyama’s name is overbearingly sad for Hinata. Probably he wouldn’t care this much if he was just nameless. It’s Kageyama having his and being left alone that’s tormenting him.

“You know it doesn’t have to be a romantic match. But it can be, if you want it to. You get to choose.”

“I don’t have his name.” Hinata repeats, bottom lip caught between his teeth.

“That doesn’t have to matter unless you let it.” It’s all fairly irrelevant, Tanaka thinks. If he wants to be Kageyama’s best friend or boyfriend, why should a small detail like not having his name change how he feels?

“You remember Nekoma’s setter?” Tanaka’s brain gets thrown off-track for a second. Hinata stares at him unblinking.

“Sure. Quiet, little shorter than me, bleached hair,” he seemed slightly disinterested in volleyball, but he was, “a bit of a genius, right?”

“Right.” Hinata rubs at the palms of his hands again. Both of them, Tanaka unexpectedly realises, not just his right one where Kageyama’s name would go if they matched. “Kozume Kenma.”

“Shou…” Tanaka reaches out with his Nishinoya-free arm to hold both of Hinata’s small hands and keep them steady. “What something happened today?”

“He,” Hinata sniffs like he’s holding back tears, “Kenma-san I mean, on his left palm, he– he has my name.”

“Ah.”

“Right in the centre.” His hands tremble under Tanaka’s. “Just like Yamayama. That shouldn’t happen, right? There shouldn’t be _two_ of my name and I don’t have _one_? It’s unfair, isn’t it?” A big, fat tear escapes out of the corner of one of his eyes.

“Super unfair,” Tanaka agrees, trying to remember if he’s ever heard of double-soulmates before. He thinks he’s seen a movie where a girl gets a second one after her husband dies. But that’s more one person with two names, not two people with one. “Grossly unfair.”

“And, and, Kenma-san is so cool and kind and cute, right?”

“Right.”

“But Yamayama is also so cool, and kind and cute.”

“Kags is kind?”

“When he tries! And they’re both super amazing volleyball setters, like, real _gwahhh_ -skill level. But Yamayama’s _my_ setter, y’know… He’s _my_ setter.”

“He can still be your best friend.” Tanaka points out. “Maybe he’s got your name because you guys are soulmates on court… Kenma can be your soulmate in another way?” Hinata pouts.

“I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“Well, you’re a teenager, you don’t really have to know anythin’.” He smiles. “But don’t forget, it’s just a name. You still get to choose on what sorta bond you want to have with them.” Hinata nods, gaze dropping again to Kageyama as he pulls his hands free to scrub at his eyes.

“I don’t want to hurt him.” It’s almost a whisper. “He’s my best friend, but I can’t tell him this because it will hurt him.”

“Tell him when you’re ready,” Tanaka decides after a moment. Because it’d be unfair for Kageyama to never know. Or to find out from someone other than Hinata himself. He deserves to be told. But Hinata also deserves to have time to process and muddle through his own feelings, “And try to focus on the silver lining.”

“There’s a silver lining?” Hinata peaks at him hopefully over the top of his fingers. Tanaka grins and leans forwards to flick him in the forehead.

“Yeah! At least you don’t have more than two hands.”

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

“Would you rather,” Tanaka leans to the right as his car on screen turns right, pressing to release the blue bomb he’s been holding onto and laughing when Nishinoya curses him, “have two people get your name, and you get neither, or get someone’s name and find out not only do they not have your name, someone else also has theirs?”

“Eh?” Nishinoya groans as Princess Daisy gets blasted over a bridge by the blue bomb and he has to wait to get plonked down on the course again. “What do you mean? Like, two people get the same name?”

“Yeah.” Tanaka doesn’t even apologise as he knocks Princess Daisy out of the way to blast past; it’s time Birdo gets the recognition she deserves in this game. “And the name they both get is of someone who has no name.”

“This is hyper-specific, Ryuu,” Nishinoya’s face scrunches up, but he still manages to cheer when he gets a star, “do they all know each other?”

“Kinda. I guess. Two of them are teammates and they met the third just recently.” He beams when Birdo crosses the line a respectable second, laughing when Princess Daisy crawls over the line fifth and Nishinoya punches his arm for foul playing him on the last lap.

“Do you know something I don’t know?”

“Maybe?”

“Well!” Nishinoya tugs on his earlobe and peaks with one eye into his ear. “I can’t see a thing in here, looks like you’ve got to spill the beans yourself!”

“That second-year setter from Nekoma, Kenma, with through-the-roof game strategy.”

“Oh,” Nishinoya perches back on his heels, “with bleached hair and golden cat eyes?” Tanaka nods. “He’s pretty cool! What about him?”

“He’s got Shou-chan’s name.” Nishinoya’s mouth drops open. It’s so comical, Tanaka thought reactions like that just happened in cartoons, that he can’t help but laugh.

“You’re kidding! Tell me you’re kidding right now!” Tanaka holds his hands up in surrender.

“I’m really, really not.”

“So, what? Kags has _Hinata Shouyou_ on his right palm, and this Kenma kid does too?”

“Ah, yeah, but on his left one.” Tanaka prods the centre of each of his palms with his middle fingers. “ _Hinata Shouyou_ , here and here.”

“Blimey.” Nishinoya blinks for several moments. Tanaka lets him process as he selects a new course for them; Wario’s Colosseum has always been one of his favourites. “And Shou-chan’s still nameless?”

“Yup.”

“That’s pretty shit for everyone.”

“Kags doesn’t know about Kenma.”

“Yikes. Does Kenma know about Kags?”

“Oh. I don’t know actually, I didn’t ask.”

“Double yikes.” Nishinoya shuffles around and nestles back into the cocoon of blankets they’ve made in his basement. It’s way too many blankets than they realistically need for a warm afternoon, but the basement is a bit cooler than the rest of his house and Nishinoya likes to bundle up.

“Hinata’s pretty bummed about it.”

“I would be too,” Nishinoya admits, “I’ve never heard of that happening to anyone before. _And_ he’s still nameless on top.”

“You think he has to choose?” They’ve both been feeling in a pretty loyal mood today, so it’s no surprise they reselect Birdo and Princess Daisy once more.

“Maybe. Or he could just have two best friends.”

“It kinda looked like he might have a tiny crush on both of them.” Tanaka admits. It’s not just because he called them both cute – Tanaka finds people cute all the time; cuteness is an unignorable fact! – but it was the look that crept over his face when he spoke about them.

“Maybe he could just have both then. Maybe that would help everyone!” Nishinoya snorts. “Maybe it’d take two genius setters to keep Shou-chan under control.” Tanaka shoves at his shoulder.

“I guess it’s not hard to figure out his type then.”

“Oh God,” Princess Daisy’s car stalls because Nishinoya's so busy giggling he held down B too early, “a Shou-chan sandwich.” Tanaka cackles.

“Pervert.”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t think it too!”

“Not in such lewd detail!”

“You’re the one making it lewd!” They both simultaneously get thrown off the track by a huge Bowser shell.

“Ah.” Birdo looks unimpressed.

“I think,” Nishinoya pipes up after they’ve regained their position, “I’d really much rather just be nameless like us.” He throws his control up in victory when he mushrooms past Birdo on the last stretch of lap one to slip into first place. And then frantically scrambles for it when, of course, Princess Daisy veers wildly into the side barrier without him controlling her.

“Me too.” Tanaka squashes himself into the side of Nishinoya’s blanket burrito. He can feel Nishinoya’s giggles vibrating through all the layers of blankets and wonders for a moment if the reason he’s started to feel happy on more days than he feels sad about being nameless, is because he’s realised that getting a name doesn’t guarantee you a happy ending, or if it’s because he’s got someone to be this happily nameless with.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

They lose the Interhigh Preliminaries.

In only the third round.

Against Seijou.

Against Oikawa.

And it stings way worse than Tanaka was truly prepared for. They were meant to get to the finals. They were meant to win the whole thing. And, even if they didn’t, they were still definitely meant to beat Seijou. It’s not really a matter of personal pride to Tanaka, but of team pride. It matters intensely to him because it matters to Kageyama. It was important to him. He needed to beat them. And God, the kid needed something, _anything_ , just not completely shitty to happen to him.

Tanaka’s lungs crack when he tries to open his mouth to make a joke to lift the mood. Kageyama turns to look at him but his eyes are glassy and unfocused, he just looks right through him; Tanaka ends up not being able to make a sound after all.

They don’t stick around to watch the rest of the day’s matches. Maybe that’s poor sportsmanship, Tanaka’s not sure, but they shower slowly, in silence, shuffling into their uniforms and out of the changing rooms one by one. It’s only him, Narita, Kinoshita, Yamaguchi and Nishinoya – everyone else seems to have momentarily disappeared – and even Nishinoya’s dead quiet.

Tanaka doesn’t know how to navigate any of this. He’s only sixteen. He coughs to dispel a little of the silence and glances at Yamaguchi.

“Where’d Tsukishima sneak off to?” His voice sounds too loud and harsh in the half-empty room, but he wants to make sure he’s okay. Tsukishima is awkward and abrupt and always claims not to care, but Tanaka doesn’t quite buy it. He and Nishinoya personally left Hinata and Kageyama outside cooling their heads under a tap, so he doesn’t have to be so worried about them.

“Ah,” Yamaguchi’s face flushes slightly, “he stepped out briefly”, his eyes flitter about from wall to wall, avoiding making any eye contact with Tanaka.

“Huh,” Tanaka feels the beginning of a grin brewing, “hear that Noya-san? Tsukki just stepped out.” Yamaguchi cringes as Nishinoya’s ears perk up in interest.

“Ta-da-shi-kun,” he sing-songs sweetly, the usual happy lilt in his voice springing back to life slightly, “why don’t you tell your favourite senpai _exactly_ where our young Tsukki-kun is, ney?” 

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

“Is this romantic or is this stalking?” Kinoshita whispers needlessly – no one is paying a shred of attention to them and even if they were, they’re a group of volleyball players wandering around a volleyball tournament; it’s not like they’ve had to sneak in.

“Romantic if you’re Tsukki, stalking if you’re us.” Narita whispers back, craning his neck really obviously in every direction. “You'd think the bean pole would stand out in a crowd.”

“And a traitor if you’re Yamaguchi.” All five of them jolt at the sound of Tsukishima’s voice, standing stock still as if, if they don’t turn around and face him, he might second-guess himself and think they’re not here after all. He sighs. “You’re all useless. You crept right passed the court.” Tanaka peaks over his shoulder to find Tsukishima has started to walk back in the direction he’d presumably arrived from.

“Oi!” He leaps after him, catching onto Nishinoya’s wrist to drag him along, who is conveniently already latched onto Yamaguchi. Narita and Kinoshita catch up in their own time.

He’s right of course, they really did walk straight passed the court he leads them back to. Tanaka would feel a little embarrassed – he’s seen videos of them leaping about in that flashy yellow colour – but everyone else missed it too. Too focused on scanning the crowd for their resident lamp post to think about which court they’d find him watching. They shuffle awkwardly into a row that’s sort of near the front but sort of on the edge. They’d be easy to spot if only someone were looking for them.

“Does he know you’re here?” Tanaka kinds of wants to hug Tsukishima because this detour away from their own misery has boosted his mood like nothing else. But he doesn’t want to push his luck; he’s aware they’ve sort of crashed his romantic stalking, so contents himself with folding around Nishinoya for a hug.

“He doesn’t know who I am.” Tsukishima politely reminds him, eyes watching the court attentively.

“Tsukki-kun this is unexpectedly cute,” Narita sniffs tragically, “today has been a bit overwhelming,” he adds when everyone blinks at him in mixed levels of confusion. He lifts up the bottom of his shirt to blow his nose on.

“It’s not cute.” Tsukishima grumbles.

“It’s pretty cute, Tsukki.”

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.”

“Hey!” Nishinoya flaps a hand at Tsukishima, “be kind to little Yams or I might accidentally yell your full name right here right now.” He pokes his tongue out at Tsukishima’s dangerously narrowed eyes. Tanaka honestly thinks that would be a great idea. He’s seen how chaotic Captain yellow can be and he wants nothing more than for him to leap off the court and into the bleachers to greet Tsukishima. But he gets the distinct impression that’s not what Tsukishima wants.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try. Me.” Nishinoya puffs out his chest like a small, angry little bird and Tanaka bursts into laughter.

“Ehh? So, this is where you all flitted off to?” Sugawara coos from the aisle they’ve crammed down. The rest of the third years are gathered over his shoulders.

“How’d you find us?” Kinoshita seems genuinely shocked that anyone would be able to see them here, as stellar as their hiding spot is.

“Takeda-sensei said he thought he saw you all running in here.” Sawamura seems a little bewildered by their choice of relocation.

“Then we just had to follow Tanaka-kun’s laugh.” Sugawara smiles warmly.

“Didn’t we say we weren’t going to watch any matches?” Sawamura’s eyebrows scrunch together in thought, assessing if they’ve snuck away to watch a match to torture themselves or to be good sportsmen. His eyes narrow on Narita’s puffy eyes.

“Ah,” Kinoshita pats his head soothingly, “don’t worry, he’s just had an allergic reaction to the cuteness overload.”

“Cuteness overload?” Azumane does a scan of their location and then looks back at them for further explanation. Tanaka turns to look at Tsukishima who has resolutely been looking forwards the entire time. He feels Nishinoya next to him swivel his head to turn and stare too. Then Yamaguchi. He can only assume everyone is burning holes into the side of Tsukishima’s head by the time Shimizu makes a very soft _ah_.

“This is Hana’s team.” Her face is the softest shade of pink as she tucks her hair behind her ear.

“Wait, really?” Sugawara has crammed himself along their row and leans over to inspect the court. “Ah! I see her!” Tanaka’s respect for Sugawara grows exponentially; he’s not bothering to be subtle at all.

“She is cute.” Azumane concedes from where he’s slotted himself into the row behind with Sawamura, apparently satisfied by their stalking when that’s not what they were doing at all. Sawamura’s hands smack across the back of his and Nishinoya’s head at the same time.

“Ow!”

“What did we do?”

“I know you’re trying to be protective, but this is too much.” Sawamura is using his stern voice.

“Daichi-san, with all due respect,” Tanaka takes in a big breath since this one might just be his last, “what the actual frick on a stick are you talking about?”

“I don’t think they were here scoping out Hana-chan,” Sugawara sing-songs in front, voice loud enough that he doesn’t have to turn around.

“I hadn’t told them.” Shimizu adds.

“Oh.”

“Who’s Hana?” Nishinoya is grinning from ear to ear.

“Misaki Hana,” Shimizu gently taps the gold behind her ear twice, “is the third-year manager of Johzenji volleyball club.”

“Holy shit.” Sawamura smacks him again.

“Yes.” Shimizu half-nods at him.

“They’ve never _really_ met,” Sugawara supplies, whooping along to a Johzenji chant that’s being led a few rows in front, “we just noticed her name on the team sign-up sheets a couple weeks back.”

“It might not be her.” Shimizu is still hovering in the aisle, as if she’s unprepared to commit to this moment. Tanaka bumps the back of his hand gently across Tsukishima’s chest and gives him what he hopes is a comforting look. This could not be more perfect. They could go and introduce themselves together! Then they wouldn’t have to do it all shaky and nervous and alone.

“Waaahhh!” Hinata barrels himself at them, hair tussled wildly from his shower. “You all came to check out Shima’s soulmate without us?”

“Dumbass,” Kageyama tries in vein to wrestle Hinata away from getting comfortable in a seat, “we’re meant to be collecting them.”

“Pfft!” Tanaka crumples over himself at the sour look that absorbs itself onto Tsukishima’s face. “Sorry!” He pats at him blindly. They’ve really crashed his tender moment in an epic way.

“Oh.” Sawamura sounds like he might be hiding giggles.

“Oh?” Sugawara is definitely not hiding his. “Tsukishima-kun, how sweet! Which one?” Nishinoya crows excitedly about how loved he feels because he knows _exactly_ which one.

“You really, really, _really_ do love us!” He clambers across Tanaka’s flopped back in an attempt to hug Tsukishima. “You even showed us his Instagram! We _must_ be your favourite senpai.”

“I think not.” Sugawara turns to stare at them, pouting dramatically, “I’m everyone’s favourite senpai.” Nishinoya pulls out his own pout and the two of them clamour at Tsukishima in an attempt to make him choose a favourite.

“It’s the Captain,” Tsukishima supplies instead, eyes following Captain yellow as he squawks loudly on the court.

“A wise choice.” Sawamura pats the top of his hair, positively beaming.

“Cute, Dai,” Sugawara smirks, “but I _think_ Tsukishima-kun here meant that Mr. Captain is his man, not that you’re his favourite. Sorry.” He winks, evidently as far from sorry as he could be, before turning back to face the court.

“Of course.” Sawamura is convincing nobody with how embarrassed he looks, but it’s endearing that he’s pretending.

“He’s a sly hottie!” Sugawara cheers. “Very good bad-boy.”

“Good bad-boy?” It’s clear Azumane disagrees with him in part. “He’s bleached his hair and got a weird haircut.”

“At least he gets his hair cut, young Jesus,” Sawamura chuckles to himself.

“Yeah! He looks like he wears his uniform all wrong, but he’s never missed a day of school in his life. I bet he has good grades, but pranks all of his teachers so is forever in detention anyway.”

“Right!” Nishinoya high-fives Sugawara, thrilled with such an assessment. “I like him already!”

They linger until the end of the match, until Johzenji wins and Ennoshita finally shows up completely bemused as to why he returned from a motivational pick-me-up video call from Yamamoto to find only coach Ukai and Takeda twiddling their thumbs on a wall outside.

“You’ll make a great Captain,” Sawamura ruffles his hair fondly as they file out in semblance of an order back into the aisles and leave the court behind. “You managed to rally the troops when even I failed.”

“You’ve just hit your rebellious stride late, Dai,” Sugawara grins, all of them politely ignoring how the only reason they’re listening to Ennoshita now is because the match is over. “I think Captain Kitty-Cat’s a great influence on you.”

They don’t mean to see, they don’t even realise what game they’re walking passed until Kageyama stops abruptly and Hinata walks right into him.

Seijou have beaten Senseki High.

Tanaka’s eyes flicker from Kageyama to Tsukishima to Shimizu.

Seijou will play Johzenji in the semi-finals.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Seeing Seijou victorious in a totally different match, their battle with Karasuno already a memory to them, popped the brief happy bubble that had started to grow around them. Ukai drags them into a family restaurant just as it’s closing and buys them all they can eat. Which, when you consider Nishinoya and Sawamura, is a huge amount of food.

“All that running and jumping puts stress on the muscles and tears muscle fibre. At the end of a game, your muscle fibre will be in tatters.” Ukai tells them as a kind-faced woman presents them with plate after plate of warm dishes. “You recover by eating. That’s what gives you muscle. That will make you stronger. So, eat up. Eat a proper meal.”

They dig in. And the food tastes good. Great even. Rice is amazing, Tanaka thinks, and his body finally relaxes.

So, they lost.

They lost to Seijou in round three and it hurts. They’re not going to Tokyo. He blinks once, twice, and then realises he’s crying and doesn’t remember when he started to. At his side Nishinoya sniffs. Tanaka glances up to find all his team are in tears, aside from Tsukishima even though it kind of looks like he wants to be.

So, they lost. They lost to Seijou in round three and it hurts. It hurts like hell and that’s alright. It means they have to work harder. To get stronger. To come back next time and defeat them.

But for right now, they’ll hurt, they’ll eat rice and they'll have each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly & truly if you didn't know i was going to shoe-horn kurodai into the background, then do you really know me at all?


End file.
